16  MEMORIES    AND    COINCIDENCES. 


MEMORIES  AND  COINCIDENCES. 


~]\ /T  OST  people  are  pleasantly  affected,  even  though  there  be 
^**-  a  tinge  of  sadness,  when,  in  mature  years  or  advanced 
life,  they  meet  with  persons  or  incidents  that  have  an  intimate 
connection  with  the  first  thoughts  of  their  childhood  Or  the 
associations  d>f  their  youth. 

The  writer's  first  recollections  of  a  book,  other  than  the 
ponderous  Bible  of  the  grandfather,  Watts'  hymns  and  the 
almanac  that  hung  by  a  loop  over  the  fire-place,  was  one,  to 
us,  very  mysterious  and  perplexing,  as  it  absorbed  the  atten- 
tion for  maivy  da}~s  of  a  sister,  a  little  our  senior,  making  her 
thoughtful  and  uncommunicative,  and  depriving  us  of  our 
principal  social  comfort.  One  evening  when  she  had  pored 
long  and  silently  over  the  book,  my  father  said  to  her,  "Come, 
it  is  time  you  were  abed."  She  dropped  one  hand  and  untied 
one  shoe,  not  raising  her  eyes  from  the  book  and  making  no 
further  progress  towards  retiring.  After  awhile  he  repeated 
his  admonition,  when  she  untied  the  other  shoe  in  the  same 
listless  manner,  but  kept  on  reading  page  after  page.  At  last 
he  said  in  a  quiet  wa}-  to  our  mother,  "What  on  earth  is  that 
child  reading?"  "Oh,"  she  replied,  "she  is  reading  about 
Bobbins  and  Riley,  who  were  cast  away  on  the  desert  of 
Sahara."  The  mental  photograph  is  dim,  and  we  do  not 
remember  if  she  went  to  bed  at  all.  One  warm  summer's 
day,  after  she  had  finished  the  book,  she  took  us  to  a  shady 
grove  by  the  roadside,  where  there  was  a  small  spring  of  cold 
water  bubbling  up  into  a  little  basin  in  the  earth,  which  would 
hold,  perhaps,  two  quarts,  and  where  we  both  la}r  down  and 
drank  heartily,  but  the  little  fountain  seemed  to  be  just  as  full 


MEMORIES    AND    COINCIDENCES.  17 

as  before.  She  said,  "  Bobbins  could  drink  all  the  water  in 
that  spring  at  once.v  "I  don't  know  Robbins,"  I  said.  Then 
she  told  us  of  the  wonderful  book  she  had  been  reading — of 
an  ocean,  ships,  sailors,  winds,  wrecks — of  a  great  desert, 
Arabs;  and  lastl}'  of  the  terrible  hunger  and  thirst  of  two  men, 
Robbins  and  Rile3*.  One  night  we  awoke  with  a  burning 
thirst,  and  our  mother  brought  a  cup  of  water,  which  we  com- 
pletely drained,  when  she  assured  us  we  should  not  be  thirsty 
any  more,  for  we  had  drank  enough  for  Robbins  and  Riley 
both.  When  large  enough  to  carry  the  "  drink  "  in  the  hay 
field,  men  would  say,  "  Huny  up,  boy,  for  we're  dryer  than 
Robbins."  For  manj-  years  the  tale  of  Robbins  was  read  in 
families  and  told  at  school,  and  the  sufferings  of  Robbins  be- 
came the  proverbial  standard  for  excessive  hunger  and  thirst. 
A  few  years  since,  and  more  than  forty  years  after  what  we 
have  related,  and  when  we  had  supposed  that  the  hero  of  the 
narrative  had  passed  away,  even,  perhaps,  before  we  had 
heard  the  story,  we  read  one  evening  in  the  Plain  Dealer 
an  extended  and  interesting  obituary  of  Mr.  Jason  Robbing, 
of  Solon,  in  which  we  were  surprised  and  gratified  to  learn 
that  the  hero  from  childhood,  and  of  the  mysterious  book, 
had  lived  for  many  years  in  that  peaceful  and  romantic  town, 
a  prominent  citizen  and  magistrate,  and  the  father  of  sons 
and  daughters  who  revered  him  in  life  and  lamented  him  in 
death.  We  could  hardly  have  been  more  astonished  had  we 
been  told  that  the  re-animated  form  of  Daniel  Defoe  had 
shaken  off  the  one  hundred  and  fifty  years  mortuary  dust  of 
Bunhill  Fields,  and  was  discussing  with  Swift,  and  Addison, 
and  Pope,  at  the  London  Coffee  House,  the  merits  of  the 
Tattler  and  Spectator,  and  the  virtues  of  Queen  Anne,  and 
that  Robinson  Crusoe  had  "  sold  out "  on  Juan  Fernandez, 
and  was  cultivating  Catawba  grapes  on  Kelly's  Island. 

A  few  summers  afterward  we  visited  the  ancient  homestead 
among  the  green  hills  of  New  England,  drank  at  the  same 
little  spring  where  we  heard  the  story  forty-five  years  before, 


BANCROFT 

LIBRARY 

<• 

THE  LIBRARY 

OF 

THE  UNIVERSITY 
OF  CALIFORNIA 


MEN  AND  EVENTS 


OF 


HALF  A  GENTTJEY. 


BY 


FREDERICK  T.  WALLACE. 


CLEVELAND: 

EVANGELICAL  ASSOCIATION. 
1882. 


Entered  according  to  Act  of  Congress,  in  the  year  1882,  & 

FREDERICK  T.  WALLACE, 
In  the  office  of  the  Librarian  of  Congress,  at  Washington. 


BANCROFT 
LIBRARY 

PREFACE. 


CHOULD  any  reader  of  this  book  deem  the  author  to  have 
presumed  too  much  on  the  public  consideration,  or  to 
have  mistaken  the  historical  and  literary  tastes  of  a  read- 
ing people,  his  apology  is  that  he  has  been  tempted  by  the 
over-indulgence  of  the  public  journals  of  Cleveland,  and  some 
of  New  York,  Boston  and  Chicago,  which  have,  during  a  series 
of  years,  published  most  of  the  papers  herein,  besides  having 
put  the  writer  off  his  guard  of  modesty  by  each  asking  in 
pleasing  terms  for  more  copy. 

He  confesses,  nevertheless,  something  akin  to  parental  feel- 
ing for  his  scattered  children  of  the  brain,  remembering  the 
\        happiness  or  sadness  attendant  upon  their  birth  ;  and  there- 
fore he  has  called  the  little  wanderers  home,  wiped  their  sun- 


browned  faces,  combed  their  matted  and  dishevelled  locks, 


and  in  some  instances  set  on  a  patch  of  new  cloth  where  they 
seemed  somewhat  thread-bare,  or  a  little  out  at  the  knees  or 
elbows,  to  make  them  a  trifle  more  presentable  among  the  few 
surviving  neighbors  who  saw  most  of  them  when  they  first 
toddled,  and  their  father  was  young  and  hopeful  —  cherish- 
ing, withal,  a  parental  hope  that  a  new  and  cultured  genera- 
tion may  discover  something  in  their  forms  and  faces,  and 
<_J     respectful  manners,  not  wholly  unattractive,  though  they  be 
not  among  the  prettiest  and  best  dressed  of  literary  children. 
Furthermore,  an  abiding  attachment  for  the  beautiful  city 
X     and  its  generous  people  has  prompted  the  author  to  an  effort 
^£     to  awaken,  in  the  minds  of  a  few  appreciative  friends,  pleas- 
£E     ant  recollections  of  local  events,  and  to  recall  a  few  among 
LLJ     the  man}'  names  of  those  who  have  contributed  to  make  up 
^     the  record  of  the  eventful  history  of  our  city  and  country,  cov- 
ering a  period  of  half  a  century. 

Cleveland,  1882.  F.  T.  W. 


CONTENTS. 

PAGE 

1.  After  Twenty  Five  Years 1 

2.  Memories  and  Coincidences 16 

3.  Our  Travelers  and  Writers 29 

4.  Webster's  Spelling-Book  "Uncovered" 52 

5.  Tea  Drinking  and  Tales  of  a  Grandmother 60 

6.  Science,  Literature  and  Law 66 

7.  The  Iberian  and  the  Gaul 73 

8.  The  American  Lakes 78 

9.  The  Two  Doctors 83 

10.  The  Death  of  Douglas 88 

11.  The  Riddle  Banquet 91 

12.  Major  Lyman  C.  Thayer 94 

13.  The  Celestial  Embassador 98 

14.  The  Japanese  Embassy 101 

15.  In  Memoriam — Morse 104 

16.  The  Cause 107 

17.  Eighteen  Hundred  Seventy  one 108 

18.  Col.  Miller  and  the  Sword  of  Byron 110 

19.  A  Legend  of  Damascus 115 

20.  General  Mosby  and  Speaker  Blaine 119 

21.  War,  Avarice  and  Peculation 124 

22.  The  Sword  of  Spain 128 

23.  The  National  Land  System 131 

24.  The  Year  of  Centennials 135 

25.  The  Millennial  of  Iceland 138 

26.  The  Press  and  the  Cardiff  Giants 141 

27.  Obliterating  the  Landmarks 145 

28.  National  Reform  and  Primary  Meetings 148 

29.  Recollections  of  the  Hawaiian  Chancellor  *. 152 


IV  CONTENDS. 

PAGE 

30.  Reunion  of  the  Originals 155 

31.  Our  Guests  of  the  Ssengerfest 158 

32.  Truth  at  Last  and  by  a  Woman 161 

33.  Ancient  Egyptian  Beer  Gardens 167 

v  34.  Mentor  and  the  Mecca  of  the  Mormons 170 

35.  Exposition  of  Marital  Products 174 

36.  The  Past  and  the  Future 177 

37.  Humor  and  its  Uses 181 

38.  Cuyahoga  in  Congress 187 

39.  Lafayette  and  the  Heroes  of  1812 190 

40.  The  Staff  of  Steel 195 

41.  Reflections 196 

42.  Riverside  Dedicatory 197 

43.  Memorial  Tree-Planting 201 

44.  The  Dead  Children 203 

45.  Livingstone — Stanley 205 

46.  A  Marmion  of  the  Nile 207 

47.  Viaduct  Reflections 208 

48.  The  Dead  Astronomer 213 

49.  South  Side  Park  Dedicatory 215 

50.  The  Cow  in  Court 221 

51.  Sherlock  J.  Andrews — A  Memory  and  a  Tear 226 

52.  Questions  Answered 230 

53.  Recollections  of  Adelaide  Phillips 233 

54.  Cleveland  Bar  Banquet 237 

55.  Sanitary  Regulations  of  Pekin 243 

56.  Garrison — Phillips — Andrew 248 

57.  Agrippina  and  Lucretia — A  Parallel 254 

58.  Music  and  its  Influences 261 

59.  Atlantis  and  America — Myths  vs.  Realities 287 

60.  Recollections  of  Webster  and  Choate 303 

61.  The  Kidd  Letter.  .                                                          .  324 


AFTER  TWENTY-FIVE  YEARS. 


TN  1854  the  writer  for  the  first  time  looked  into  the  old 
•*•  court  house  in  Cleveland,  then  standing  where  now  are 
the  rustic  bridge,  the  fountain,  and  the  pond,  in  the  south- 
west corner  of  the  Park.  Samuel  Starkweather  was  judge  of 
the  court  of  Common  Pleas,  James  D.  Cleveland  was  clerk  of 
the  court,  Miller  M.  Spangler  was  sheriff,  David  L.  Wight- 
man  was  his  deputy,  and  afterwards  his  successor  in  office, 
and  Samuel  Williamson  was  prosecuting  attorney.  J.  W. 
Gra}r  was  postmaster,  and  the  venerable  Patrick  Farley 
was,  as  he  had  been  for  many  years  and  continued 
many  years  longer  to  be,  the  faithful  and  responsible 
custodian  of  the  Government  mail  bags.  Jabez  W. 
Fitch  was  United  States  marshal,  -Robert  Parks  was 
collector  of  customs,  D.  W.  Cross  and  F.  X.  Byerly 
were  deputy  collectors,  E.  L.  Day  was  cashier,  and 
Morris  Jackson  was  inspector.  George  C.  Dodge,  with 
natural  proclivities  to  honesty,  was  county  treasurer,  and 
William  Fuller,  still  young  enough  to  vote,  was  auditor. 
Pierce  was  president,  William  'Medill  was  acting  governor, 
Governor  Reuben  Wood,  the  tall  "Cuyahoga  Chief,"  having- 
been  appointed  consul  to  Valparaiso,  and  Hemy  H.  Dodge 
was  engineer  of  the  Public  Works.  Abner  C.  Brownell  was 
mayor,  and  Richard  C.  Parsons  was  president  of  the  council. 
The  venerable  Captain  Bartlett,  from  old  Marblehead,  Mas- 
sachusetts, was  city  clerk,  auditor  and  treasurer,  the  duties 
of  which  he  performed  for  a  long  series  of  years,  to  his  own 
credit  and  the  public  satisfaction,  at  a  salar}^  for  the  three 
responsibilities  less  than  a  clerk  now  gets  in  either  office,  and 
1 


2  AFTER    TWENTY-FIVE    YEARS. 

yet  he  was  serene  and  happy,  courteous  and  obliging.  Andrew 
A.  Freese  was  superintendent  of  the  public  schools.  The  stal- 
wart Michael  Gallagher  wore  the  cockade,  bright  buttons  and 
star,  the  insignia  of  the  awe-inspiring  office  of  city  marshal. 
J.  H.  Harris  and  George  A.  Benedict  were  editors  of  the 
Herald,  J.  W.  Gray  was  editor  of  the  Plain  Dealer,  and 
John  C.  Vaughn  was  editor  of  the  Leader,  soon,  however, 
succeeded  by  George  Bradburn.  The  Academy  of  Music 
was  under  the  management  of  John  A.  Ellsler,  a  gentleman 
of  remarkable  versatility,  of  dramatic  talent,  and  a  comedian 
unrivalled  upon  the  stage,  save  possibly  by  Warren,  of  the 
Boston  Museum,  and  who  still  holds  his  high  place  in  public 
favor  and  in  personal  regard. 

That  year,  1854,  Ohio  Cit}'  was  annexed.  The  commis- 
sioners were  Hiram  V.  Willson,  Franklin  T.  Backus  and 
Charles  L.  Rhodes.  Mr.  Rhodes  alone  survives.  The  others 
departed  life  in  the  order  of  their  signatures  to  the  articles  of 
annexation.  The  Water  Works  were  not,  though  the  pipes 
were  being  cast  and  trenches  dug,  and  Superior  street  was  a 
dismal  sort  of  corduroy  plank-highway,  asphalted  with  a  good 
honest  coat  of  deep  black  mud.  The  leading  lawyers  and 
firms  were  then  as  they  had  been  for  many  years,  and  the 
survivors  of  whom  still  remain  with  some  changes,  Willson, 
Wade  &  Wade;  Bishop,  Backus  &  Noble  (J.  P.  Bishop 
subsequently  judge  of  Common  Pleas)  ;  Spalding  and  Par- 
sons ;  Bolton,  Kelley  &  Griswold  ;  Prentiss,  Prentiss  &  New- 
ton ;  Paine  and  Tilden  (Robert  F.  Paine  afterwards  elected 
judge  of  the  Common  Pleas,  and  Tilden  probate  judge)  ; 
Mason  and  Estep  ;  Andrews,  Foot  &  Hoyt ;  Case  &  Fitch  ; 
Williamson  and  Riddle  ;  Willey  anxi  Carey ;  Otis  and  Sears  ; 
Wyman  and  Thayer ;  Axtell  and  Prentiss ;  Wood  and 
Abbey ;  Fitch  and  Grannis  ;  Keith  and  Coon ;  Mueller  and 
Ritter ;  Linde  and  Castle ;  Palmer  and  Dennis ;  Husband 
and  Davison;  Horace  Foote,  Charles  Stetson,  Bushnell 
White,  Edward  Hessenmueller,  Joseph  Adams,  S.  E.  Adams, 


AFTER    TWENTY-FIVE    YEARS.  3 

John  Crowell,  Hiram  Griswold,  William  Slade,  William  Col- 
lins, Merrill  Barlow,  R.  D.  Noble,  Charles  L.  Fish,  John  W. 
Heisley,  James  M.  Coffinberry  (since  judge  of  the  court  of 
Common  Pleas),  B.  R.  Beavis,  R.  G.  Hunt,  William  Robison, 
D.  W.  Gage,  A.  T.  Slade,  J.  J.  Elwell  (author  of  a  work  on 
medical  jurisprudence),  and  a  }Tear  or  two  subsequent  per- 
haps. J.  Edwards  Ingersoll,  J.  H.  Rhodes,  F.  J.  Dickman,  W. 
S.  Kerruish,  Wm.  J.  Boardman,  G.  E.  Herrick,  W.  C.  McFar- 
land,  L.  A.  Russell,  A.  T.  Brinsmade,  W.  W.  Andrews,  and 
O.  M.  Barber,  E.  T.  Hamilton,  James  M.  Jones  and  S.  E. 
Williamson  (now  judges  of  the  court  of  Common  Pleas). 
Horace  Foote  and  Samuel  B.  Prentiss  each  served  fifteen 
years  on  the  bench  of  the  Common  Pleas  with  eminence  for 
legal  learning,  judicial  fairness  and  personal  honor.  Increase 
of  the  judicial  force  in  recent  years  gave  J.  H.  McMath, 
Darius  Cadwell  and  Henry  McKinney  to  the  Common  Pleas 
bench. 

Since  then  more  than  twenty  of  those  named,  with  many 
more  subsequent  members  of  the  bar,  have  been  called  to  a 
higher  court.  Ranney,  clear,  powerful,  and  eminent  as  a 
jurist,  no  older  apparently  to-day  than  then,  and  good  for 
twenty  years  more,  was  then  on  the  Supreme  bench. 
Willson  was  early  made  judge  of  the  United  States  District 
court ;  F.  W.  Green  clerk  thereof ;  Lewis  Dibble  cried  the 
non-suits  and  defaults  therein,  entertained  the  bar  with  good 
anecdotes  and  choice  quotations  from  Byron,  which  he  knew 
by  heart,  while  our  ancient  Caledonian  friend,  Alexander 
Mclntosh,  beautified  and  adorned  the  city  with  trees  and 
flowers.  Time  has  touched  lightly  the  two  last  even  unto 
this  day.  Twenty-five  years  ago  Richard  Hilliard  was  the 
grave  and  stately  leading  wholesale  merchant  on  Water  street, 
and  building  his  lofty  mansion  on  St.  Clair  street,  too  soon 
to  be  exchanged  for  a  grave  and  a  monument.  Of  the  other 
prominent  merchants  of  that  period,  who  are  still  in  business 
substantially  as  then,  we  can  recall  only  the  names  and  firms 


AFTER    TWENTY-FIVE    YEARS. 

of  Morgan  &  Root,  Alcott  &  Horton,  E.  I.  Baldwin,  Root  &. 
Whitelaw,  Babcock  &  Hurd,  L.  F.  &  S.  Burgess,  R,  T.  Lyonr 
J.  B.  Smith,  William  Bingham,  William  Edwards,  General 
James  Barnett,  S.  S.  Lyon,  E.  L.  Dodd,  William  T.  Smith, 
Joseph  Marchand,  Joseph  Richards  and  John  A.  Vincent. 
Edmund  Clark  then  daily  visited  his  bank,  watched  the 
currency,  separated  the  doubtful  and  depreciated  from  'the 
good,  and  kept  the  circulation  healthy.  Three  score  years 
and  ten  were  measured  unto  him.  The  venerable  Melanc- 
thon  Barnett,  without  suspension  for  a  day,  smoked  the 
inevitable  pipe  of  peace  in  the  sanctum  of  the  Merchant's 
Bank,  gave  the  directors  and  officers  thereof  the  benefit  of 
his  financial  wisdom,  gained  in  his  long  and  eventful  life 
and  varied  experiences,  and  kept  through  troubled  times 
of  fluctuation  and  panic  his  favorite  institution  safe  tmd 
sound.  Ninety  years  was  given  unto  him  before  he  was 
gathered  to  his  fathers.  Leonard  Case  lived  where  now 
stands  the  postoffice,  and  the  "Ark"  rested  hard  by  with 
its  "family,"  all  sons,  and  more  numerous  than  that  which 
survived  the  flood.  But  the  venerable  patriarch  and  William 
Case,  his  noble  first  born,  soon  hastened  away.  Nathan 
Perry  then  came  in  daily  "from  the  distant  "farm."  himself 
driving  the  handsome  baj'S  with  the  brass  mounted  harness 
—but  he  too  has  gone,  preceded  by  his  son,  the  lamented 
Oliver  Perry,  whose  beautiful  monumental  urn  testifies  of  the 
place  of  his  repose  in  the  old  Erie  Cemetery  family  grounds.. 
And  now  the  Ridge  with  its  grateful  shade  and  sloping  lawn 
has  become  a  line  of  palaces,  and  the  lowlands  are  covered 
with  the  homes  of  the  people.  Levi  Johnson  then  looked 
after  his  large  real  estate  interests,  encouraged  the  despond- 
ing party  and  cherished  the  memory  of  General  Jackson,  and 
now  the  sod  covers  him.  Thomas  Jones,  the  father  of  a  fam- 
ily of  talented  sons  and  bright  daughters,  under  whose 
auspices  was  erected  the  Perry  statue  in  the  Park,  and  who 
made  more  monuments  for  the  city's  dead  than  any  other 


AFTER    TWENTY-FIVE    YEARS.  0 

Artist  in  marble,  was  then  active  in  business,  and  generous 
and  kind  in  word  and  deed,  notably  to  young  men  who  came 
to  the  city  as  strangers  to  make  it  their  permanent  abode. 
Now  a  fitting  monument  marks  his  honored  grave.  Then  the 
venerable  Dr.  Aiken  was  minister,  without  a  colleague,  at  the 
First  Church  ;  Eells  at  the  Second  ;  Bittinger  on  the  Avenue, 
and  Thome  on  the  West  Side  —  Dr.  James  A.  Bowles  was 
Tector  of  Trinity  ;  Claxton  of  St.  Paul's  ;  Perry  of  Grace,  and 
Burton  of  St.  John's.  Brown  was  minister  of  the  Round 
Church  on  Wood  street ;  White  at  Plymouth  ;  Hill  at  St. 
Clair  Street  Methodist ;  J.  Hyatt  Smith  (now  member  of 
Congress),  at  the  Erie  Street  Baptist,  and  Amadeus  Rappe 
was  Catholic  Bishop  of  Cleveland.  Of  physicians,  Dr.  Jacob 
Delamater  was  still  seen  in  his  ancient  one-horse  chaise,  ven- 
erated for  his  long  and  faithful  services,  the  father  of  the 
medical  profession.  Professor  Jared  P.  Kirtland  was  the 
renowned  scientist  —  the  Agassiz  of  the  West  —  searching  the 
mysteries  of  the  whole  arcana  of  nature,  and  reading  the 
manuscripts  of  God  in  the  structure  and  life  of  man,  animal 
and  insect ;  the  order  of  planetary  development  and  the 
C}Tcles  thereof;  ever}'  flower  of  the  earth,  and  every  gem  of 
the  sea  being  to  him  a  revelation  and  mental  delight.  He 
now  rests,  near  the  ancient  homestead,  on  a  plateau  over- 
looking an  inland  sea,  beneath  the  ample  foliage  of  trees 
planted  by  his  own  hands,  and  the  zephyrs  that  play  around 
his  hallowed  grave  are  fragrant  with  the  balm  of  a  thousand 
flowers,  natives  of  other  lands  and  skies,  naturalized  and 
domesticated  under  the  influence  of  his  gentle  touch  and 
thoughtful  care.  The  elder  Gushing  was  eminent  as  a  medi- 
cal practitioner,  and  Ackley  was  the  renowned  surgeon.  Gar- 
lick  had  not  then  won  fame,  though  experimenting  in  the 
artificial  fecundation  of  the  ova  of  the  fish,  while  now  he  is 
recognized  and  acknowledged  as  the  first  demonstrator  of  the 
practicability  of  artificial  fish  culture,  and  the  progenitor  of 
that  now  extensive  industry,  in  the  United  States.  The  elder 


6  AFTER    TWENTY-FIVE    YEARS. 

Dr.  Wheeler  was  then  prominent  and  active,  and  Proctor 
Thayer  and  Elisha  Sterling  were  young  and  skillful  surgeons. 
J.  P.  Ross  was  landlord  of  the  Weddell  House,  Angier  of  the 
"  Angier  House  "  (now  Kennard),  and  A.  P.  Winslow  was  the 
popular  proprietor  of  the  American  House.  T.  P.  Handy,. 
Cleveland's  earliest,  most  eminent  financier,  honorable,  cour- 
teous and  friendly,  was  devoted  to  the  management  of  the 
Commercial  Bank,  while  Dan  P.  Eells  "(now  its  president) 
was  the  accomplished  cashier  thereof.  H.  B.  Hurlbut  was. 
cashier  of  the  Bank  of  Commerce.  Judge  Kellej^  was  the 
head  and  front  of  the  Merchant's  Bank,  and  Dr.  Lemuel 
Wick  was  financial  physician  of  the  City  Bank,  while  Mr.  E.. 
B.  Hale  was  then,  as  now,  the  head  of  an  extensive  and 
reputable  banking  firm,  and  H.  B.  Wick  was  the  head  and 
principal  capitalist  of  probably  the  oldest  private  banking 
house  of  the  city.  The  old  Canal  Bank  had  passed  into 
history.  The  Forest  City  Bank,  with  the  late  Mr.  Stanle}'  as 
cashier,  was  located  on  the  South  side  of  Superior  street, 
flourished  for  a  brief  season,  and  became  extinct.  Mygatt 
and  Brown  were  private  bankers  on  Bank  street,  and  Brock- 
way,  Wasson  and  Everett  were  also  private  bankers,  but  the 
associated  names  soon  after  disappeared  to  rise  in  part  in  the 
flourishing  house  of  Everett,  Weddell  and  Company,  which 
now  exists,  having  maintained  a  high  and  honorable  position 
for  more  than  twenty  years  —  Dr.  Azariah  Everett  being  the 
efficient  head  thereof,  and  in  the  meantime  developing  street 
railroads  from  pioneer  infancy  to  great  financial  success. 
Gleason  F.  Lewis  was  then  perspiring  in  the  sunshine  of 
banking  and  brokering,  soon  extending  his  labors  into  pen- 
sion agency  —  published  "The  Old  Soldier's  Friend" — did  a 
prosperous  business  in  that  line  for  several  years,  finally 
becoming  a  purchaser  of  College  and  other  land  scrip  of  Ohio 
and  other  States  at  nominal  rates,  acquiring  thereby  fabulous- 
acres  of  the  national  domain,  and  making  himself  "fore- 
handed." Now  he  buys  and  sells  railroad  lines.  Unassum- 


AFTER    TWENTY-FIVE    YEARS.  7 

ing  in  his  deportment  towards  his  less  fortunate  acquaintan- 
ces, his  voice  in  greeting  rings  out  to  them  in  the  same  high 
key  as  to  the  most  financially  favored.  He  is  recognized  on 
'Change,  and  of  all  men,  by  the  inevitable  basket  suspended 
on  his  left  arm  —  supposed  to  contain  contracts,  coupons, 
currency,  or — a  conundrum.  Mr.  Samuel  H.  Mather,  the 
father  of  the  Society  for  Savings,  watched  at  its  cradle,  and 
more  than  thirty  years  of  personal  devotion  to  his  financial 
offspring  has  developed  it  into  a  protecting  Hercules. 

It  was  the  week  following  the  October  election,  when  Ohio 
by  eight}T  thousand  majority  had  condemned  the  repeal  of 
the  Missouri  Compromise  and  the  passage  of  the  Nebraska 
bill,  electing  all  or  nearly  every  Congressman  on  the  issues 
against  those  measures.  Edward  Wade  had  been  elected  to 
Congress  for  the  Cleveland  district.  Daniel  R.  Tilden  had 
just  been  elected  for  the  first  time  judge  of  probate,  without  a 
white  hair  on  his  head,  and  to  which  office  he  has  been  re- 
elected  every  time  since,  and  until  now  there  is  not  one  of 
those  raven  locks  left  to  tell  the  tale  of  the  political  triumphs 
of  his  early  manhood.  Genial  personal  qualities  have  en- 
abled him  to  hold  his  place  in  the  regard  of  a  generous 
people,  while  his  cotemporaries  in  public  office  have,  many 
of  them,  been  compelled  annually  to  strike  their  tents,  and 
some',  possibly,  have  "  stole  away." 

Those  were  beautiful  fall  days,  such  as  are  peculiar 
to  the  West,  and  the  happy  gentleman  of  the  then  triumph- 
ant party  read  the  election  returns  with  great  joy  and  jubi- 
lant hilarity,  and  uttered  prophesies  that  the  Democratic 
party  in  Ohio  would  never  rise  to  its  feet  again,  at  least  for 
twenty-five  years.  The  prophetic  vision  was  almost  perfect, 
and  the  prediction  would,  perhaps,  have  been  literally  ful- 
filled had  not  the  shade  of  William  Allen  "rose  up"  in  the 
nick  of  time,  to  the  astonishment  alike  of  the  prophets  and 
the  Democrats. 

Joel  Scranton   then   held  the  suzerainty   of  considerable 


AFTER    TWENTY-FIVE    YEARS. 

"bottom"  on  the  Cuyahoga  river  and  in  the  valley  of  Walworth 
run,  including  the  forest-covered  bluffs  and  dells  bordering 
thereon,  then  naked  territory,  but  now  wholly  occupied  by 
railroads  and  great  manufacturing  industries,  while  the  veteran 
pioneer  of  the  "flats"  rests  within  the  narrow  strip  alotted 
unto  man.  Silas  S.  Stone  was  then,  as  he  had  been  for  many 
years,  the  ruling  sovereign  in  real  estate  enterprises  —  auto- 
crat of  all  the  rushes  on  either  side  of  the  Cu3^ahoga  from  the 
"Ox  bow"  south  "as  the  crow  flies" — and  about  as  far.  A 
wholesale  dealer,  never  a  peddler,  yet  he  never  underrated 
the  merits  of  the  humble  lot-peddler,  or  disparaged  his 
goods.  A  gentleman  of  fine  personal  presence,  in  the  prime 
of  his  manhood,  with  a  mind  capacious  and  far-seeing, 
with  a  prophetic  faith  in  the  ultimate  business  destiny  of  the 
marshy  meadows  of  the  valley,  he  has  for  more  than  thirty 
years  earned  greater  financial  burdens  through  panics  and 
commercial  disasters  than  any  other  citizen,  and  until  the  full- 
ness of  time,  when  his  prophecies  have  become  realities,  and 
the  prophet  himself  a  millionnaire.  Philo  Scovill  and  Benja- 
min Harrington,  then  active  and  enterprising  citizens, 
wealthy  and  popular  landlords  in  the  city's  infancy,  have 
since  followed  each  other  to  the  tomb.  Norman  C.  Bald- 
win, real  estate  proprietor  and  man  of  general  business,  and 
of  large  possessions,  was  ever  a  marked  person  upon  the 
streets,  and  booted  and  spurred  and  mounted  upon  a  spirited 
steed,  imposing  and  majestic  as  Bismarck  himself,  daily  dashed 
along  the  streets  in  those  years,  and  'does  so  still,  with  indefi- 
nite years  in  prospect.  Timothy  P.  Spencer,  an  early  journalist, 
postmaster,  politician  and  general  business  man,  of  rare  intelli- 
gence, enterprise  and  of  active  habits,  was  then,  as  ever,  a 
pleasant  and  friendly  patron  and  adviser  of  young  men,  and 
though  the  last  twenty  years  have  whitened  his  locks,  he  is 
still  active,  and  his  greeting  is  as  cheery  and  the  pressure  of 
his  hand  as  ardent  as  in  the  olden  time.  Charles  AVinslow 
was  wont  to  come  over  the  valley,  greet  his  old  friends  of 


AFTER    TWENTY-FIVE    YEARS. 

forty  years,  say  pleasant  things,  and  extend  in  social  civility 
his  silver  snuff-box  to  young  and  old  alike,  then  he  stepped 
behind  the  veil.  Daniel  P.  Rhodes  was  then  lord  of  the 
realms  of  iron  and  coal,  cheerful  and  neighborly,  with  strong 
proclivities  for  blooded  horses,  regulated  by  practical  sense 
and  gentleman!}'  tastes  ;  then  he  departed  and  the  social 
vacancy  has  never  been  filled.  Sanford  and  Howard  were 
then  conducting  their  extensive  and  prosperous  printing- 
house  on  Superior  street,  and  which  remained  a  few  years 
longer,  and  until  some  time  after  the  war  broke  out,  when 
Colonel  W.  H.  Hay  ward  led  a  hundred  day's  regiment  to  the 
protection  of  the  national  capital,  and  General"  A.  S.  Sanford 
devoted  his  patriotic  energies  and  military  accomplishments 
to  the  drilling  and  disciplining  of  a  company  of  home  guards, 
.a  branch  of  volunteer  military  service  deemed  important  in 
Northern  border  cities  in  view  of  an  anticipated  attack  by 
way  of  the  Dominion  of  Canada,  a  government  with  which 
the  United  States  were  at  peace.  It  was  styled  the  Cleve- 
land Citizens  Corps.  Unpatriotic  wags  called  it  the  "Rock- 
ing Chair  Guards.''  It  was  a  large  company  composed  of 
the  elite  of  the  city  —  prominent  business  men  who  felt  they 
could  not  leave  their  business  and  families  for  distant  ser- 
vice, bankers,  financiers,  railroad  magnates,  lawyers,  doctors, 
and  patriotic  young  gentlemen  of  leisure,  and  mercantile 
accountants,  who  preferred  to  serve  their  country  in  the 
ranks  of  the  C.  C.  C.  for  their  respect  for  its  gallant  and 
-accomplished  commander,  and  the  recognized  respectability 
of  each  member  of  the  company.  It  was  doubtless  the  best 
disciplined  company  of  the  kind  in  the  State.  Hardee's 
tactics  were  at  the  tongue's  end  of  ever}T  member.  The}" 
could  "  fall  in,"  "  dress "  to  the  right  and  left  with  equal 
facility,  "  march,"  "  echelon,"  "  present  arms,"  "  carry  "  and 
•"  port  "  •  —  "  load,"  "  prime  "  and  "  fire  "  (their  canes),  "  double 
^quick,"  "deploy,"  "halt"  and  "  stand  at  ease."  For  perfec- 
tion of  execution  of  the  last  two  orders  they  were  unrivalled. 


10  AFTER    TWENTY-FIVE    YEARS. 

All  professed  to  be  desirous  of  being  called  to  the  front,  but 
by  reason  of  some  strange  oversight  or  studied  neglect  on 
the  part  of  the  Governor,  or  Secretar}'  of  War,  the  company 
was  compelled  to  forego  honor  and  reputation  which  they 
had  hoped  to  win  at  the  cannon's  mouth,  and  each  member 
remained  of  necesshy  listless  and  depressed  in  the  bosom  of 
his  beloved  family  unwounded,  unpensioned  and  unsung  — 
each  burdened  with  the  consciousness  that  he  must  go  down 
to  his  grave  unrecognized,  unknelled  and  unknown  in  the 
military  annals  of  his  country. 

Cleveland  for  many  years  has  been  a  center  of  telegraphy, 
being  the  residence  of  the  President  of  the  Western  Union 
Company  and  many  accomplished  electricians,  inventors,  and 
operators.  During  the  war  it  was  the  military  telegraphic 
head-quarters,  and  in  the  parlor  of  his  elegant  mansion  on 
Euclid  avenue,  Telegraph  General-in-Chief  Anson  Stager  was- 
the  earliest  recipient  of  news  from  the  seat  of  war,  and  the 
triumphs  and  defeats  in  the  bloody  struggles  and  carnage 
were  often  known  to  a  few  immediate  neighbors  and  friends  a 
few  seconds  before  even  the  Secretary  of  War. 

Amasa  Stone  and  Stillman  Witt,  more  or  less  associated, 
were  then  distinguished  as  the  first  railroad  magnates  of  our 
city  and  the  whole  Northwest,  having  laid  the  foundation  of 
their  vast  fortunes  in  enterprises  centering  here.  Mr.  Witt 
passed  away  a  few  years  since,  lamented  by  all  for  his  sterling 
qualities,  and  mourned  in  humble  households  by  many  who 
had  learned  something  of  the  good  and  generous  impulses  of 
a  heart  that  beat  beneath  a  countenance  that  to  strangers- 
often  seemed  solemn  and  sad.  Mr.  Stone  survives,  retired 
somewhat  from  that  excess  of  devotion  which  in  former  days 
he  was  wont  to  bestow  upon  vast  enterprises,  and  is  making 
the  evening  of  his  life  serene  in  the  furnishing  of  comfortable 
and  cheerful  homes  for  aged  and  indigent  women,  and  in  the 
endowment  of  the  Adelbert  College  of  the  Western  Reserve 
University. 


AFTER    TWENTY-FIVE    YEARS.  11 

Jacob  Perkins  was  then  a  gentleman  devoted  to  great  busi- 
ness enterprises,  and  largely  devoted  for  a  time  to  the  building 
of  the  Mahoning  railroad,  and  a  large  real  estate  proprietor  in 
Northern  Ohio  and  in  the  city,  one  of  the  agreeable  and  social 
kind  of  wealthy  gentlemen  so  pleasant  to  know.  He  was 
called  to  an  untimely  grave,  considering  his  years  and  useful- 
ness; leaving  behind  him,  happily,  an  admirable  and  worthy 
son,  Mr.  Jacob  B.  Perkins,  as  the  inheritor  of  his  vast  estate, 
and  many  of  his  father's  mental  characteristics,  good  senser 
modesty,  and  friendliness  of  spirit. 

Mr.  Joseph  Perkins,  devoted  to  the  care  of  his  great  finan- 
cial interests,  was  then,  and  ever  since,  largely  occupied  in 
religious  and  social  affairs,  the  moral  welfare  of  youth,  and 
the  good  of  his  fellow  men.  Courteous,  gentle  and  friendly 
in  his  intercourse  with  all,  he  is  recognized  throughout  the 
State,  no  less  than  at  home,  for  his  humane  and  active  efforts 
in  the  promotion  and  improvement  of  public  and  charitable 
institutions. 

Twenty  years  ago  Elias  Sims  was  an  enterprising  and  ener- 
getic business  man,  a  friend,  co-operator  with,  and  sometimes 
partner  of  Daniel  P.  Rhodes  in  great  real  estate  enterprises, 
at  Rocky  River  and  elsewhere.  A  large  municipal  contractor 
for  many  years,  with  his  great  vessels  and  powerful  machinery 
he  dredged  the  Cuyahoga  river  and  made  it  a  deep,  extensive 
and  ample  harbor  for  the  shipping  of  the  lakes,  and  the  "  Old 
River  Bed  "  practicable  for  extensive  coal  and  iron  docks  and 
ship-yards.  In  later  years  he  has  been  more  especially  a  street 
railroad  magnate  and  capitalist.  Competition  and  rivalry  in 
great  business  enterprises  still  keeps  on  the  alert  his  active 
person  and  mind,  but  detracts  nothing  from  his  vivacious- 
spirit  and  kindly  impulses.  Happy  in  his  surroundings,  the 
gloom  that  most  often  shadows  his  countenance  comes  from 
contemplating  his  great  social  loss  in  the  death  of  his  cher- 
ished comrade  and  friend,  the  genial  Rhodes. 

Soldiers  of  the  Revolutionary  war  long  since  passed  awayr 


12  AFTER    TWENTY-FIVE    YEARS. 

.and  the  last  link  is  broken  that  connected  the  present  genera- 
tion with  the  military  events  of  one  hundred  years,  ago.  The 
death  a  few  years  since  of  a  venerable  citizen,  James  M. 
Hughes,  possibly,  and  so  far  as  we  know,  severed  our  city's 
representative  connection  with  the  last  war  with  England — 
and  our  war  with  Mexico,  of  1 846,  has  but  a  single  survivor 
and  living  representative  of  the  one  and  only  company  enlisted 
in  Cleveland  when  it  was  but  a  village.  Captain  Jacob  Wei- 
denkopf is  the  last  of  the  heroes  of  Chapultepec.  His  com- 
rades, many  of  them,  found  graves  at  Vera  Cruz,  Jalapa, 
National  Bridge,  and  Chapultepec,  where  in  that  heroic  ser- 
vice Scott  and  Taylor,  Pierce  and  Gushing,  Seymour  and 
Burnside  won  military  fame  and  political  prestige,  and  the 
gallant  Colonel  Ransom,  of  Vermont,  fell  pierced  in  the  fore- 
head by  a  shot  in  scaling  the  last  fortress  of  the  ancient  Aztec 
capital.  Eighteen  only  of  the  Cleveland  company  of  ninety- 
one  men,  of  which  John  S.  Perry  was  captain,  and  which  were 
of  the  gallant  Colonel  George  W.  Morgan's  regiment,  returned 
to  their  Northern  homes,  and  the}*  only  to  find  early  but  hon- 
ored and  peaceful  graves  among  their  kindred.  The  home  of 
our  surviving  hero,  when  he  enlisted,  was  on  the  corner  of 
ISeneca  and  Frankfort  streets,  where  now  stands  the  Plain  Dealer 
building,  and  whei'e  his  father  kept  "  Weidenkopf  Hall,"  him- 
self a  Bavarian  soldier,  but  serving  France  under  the  great 
Napoleon,  who  made  the  armies  of  conquered  States  and 
Nations  "fall  in."  He  served  in  the  Peninsular  campaign  in 
1809,  and  was  of  those  who  fired  the  "random  guns"  at  dead 
of  night,  when  Sir  John  Moore  was  hastily  buried.  Captain 
Weidenkopf,  in  view  of  his  military  experience,  for  many 
years  thereafter,  had  a  sort  of  prestige  in  local  military  affairs, 
and  in  gunnery  on  public  and  patriotic  occasions,  such  as 
Fourth  of  July  and  Washington's  Birthday,  and  among  the 
first  things  we  remember  to  have  read  in  the  Plain  Dealer, 
nearly  thirty  years  ago,  was  a  pleasant  editorial  paragraph  to 
the  effect  that  Capt.  Weidenkopf  would  on  the  22d  Feb'y  fire 


AFTER    TWENTY-FIVE    YEARS.  1 

a  National  salute — ending  in  one  of  J.  W.  Gray's  rollicksome 
expressions — "  Fire-away  Weidenkopf ! " 

It  will  probably  be  not  far  from  the  year  1930  when  the 
historian  of  Cleveland  will  record  the  death  of  the  last  surviv- 
ing soldier  of  the  great  Civil  war.  Let  us  therefore  revere 
the  memory  of  our  brave  and  patriotic  soldiers  of  all  our 
earlier  wars,  and  cherish  the  memory  and  keep  green  the 
graves  of  those  who  fell,  and  honor  the  survivors  of  all  who 
participated  in  the  last  sad  conflict,  and  won  triumphant  vic- 
tory and  peace  to  our  beloved  countiy. 

"Sergeant"  La  Rue  will  be  pleasantly  recalled  to  the  mem- 
ory of  many  as  an  eccentric  and  vivacious  little  Frenchman, 
who  supplied  offices  with  "patent"  kindling-wood,  delivered 
from  a  basket  carried  on  his  arm ;  propounded  conundrums- 
to  lawyers,  boasted  of  his  exploits  at  Lundy's  Lane  and 
Chippewa,  and  especially  of  his  heroism  in  assisting  in  carry- 
ing General  Scott  wounded  from  the  field.  He  was  wont  on 
the  Fourth  of  July,  and  on  occasions  of  reunions  of  the  vet- 
erans of  the  last  war  with  England,  to  appear  in  full  regi- 
mentals, with  brilliant  epaulets,  and  crowned  with  a  Napoleon 
chapeau,  much  too  large  for  his  cranium,  but  made  to  fit  by 
supplementing  his  diminutive  phrenological  bumps  with  an 
ample  bandanna  handkerchief.  He  was  happy  in  being 
invariably  saluted  as  "  Sergeant " — lived  affectionately  with  a 
daughter  till  the  last  tattoo  beat,  and  he  turned  in  to  sleep 
his  last  sleep,  from  which  neither  ear-piercing  fife,  nor  roll  of 
drum,  nor  tramp  of  battalions  shall  awake  him  to  glory  again. 

In  1854  Erastus  Corning  had  not  finished  the  Ship  Canal 
around  the  Sault  Saint  Mary,  and  vessels  of  the  lower  lakes 
were  strangers  to  the  waters  of  Lake  Superior ;  since  then  they 
have  traversed  a  thousand  miles  to  the  northwest,  and  the 
copper  and  iron  mines  of  the  Upper  Peninsula  have  paid  trib- 
ute to  our  harbor.  Iron  industries  we  had  none,  save  possibly 
Renton's  small  establishment  on  the  lake  shore,  while  now 
under  the  genius  and  practical  talent  of  the  late  Henry  Chis- 


14  AFTER    TWENTY-FIVE   -YEARS. 

holm  and  his  associates,  Cleveland  has  become  a  Birmingham, 
and  man}T  of  her  citizens  thereby  have  become  capitalists. 
Petroleum  was  then  unheard  of,  save  in  the  mythical  legends 
of  the  "eternal  fires  of  Baku,"  on  the  shores  of  the  Caspian 
Sea,  whose  burning  gas  wells  have  perpetually  blazed  and 
burned,  since  fire  was  known  to  man,  on  the  slopes  of  the 
mountains  of  Caucasus.  But  the  idea  of  boring  into  the  earth 
for  oil,  either  in  Pennsylvania  or  Ohio,  and  supplying  the 
remotest  corners  of  the  earth  with  light,  would  then  have 
seemed  as  visionar}"  as  boring  for  milk,  and  supplying  the 
world  with  butter  and  cheese.  But  what  a  history  in  our 
own  city.  Valueless  valleys  and  narrow  ravines,  which,  but 
for  the  discovery  of  petroleum,  would  never  have  been  any- 
thing but  waste  places,  Golgothas  and  Gehennas,  within  the 
municipality,  have  proved  wonderfully  adapted  to  the  newly 
developed  industry,  which,  under  the  management  of  great 
practical  talent  and  financial  ability,  has  culminated  in  the 
first  monopoly  of  the  world,  and  the  development  of  a  race 
of  millionnaires. 

The  veteran  building  contractor,  W.  J.  Warner,  who  in  his 
early  years  laid  the  foundation  and  erected  at  Burlington  the 
stately  edifice  of  the  University  of  Vermont,  had  not  yet 
built  the  Government  building  on  the  Park,  and  the  United 
States  Courts  were  held  in  Hoffman  Block,  and  the  Post 
Office  was  an  itinerant  institution  oscillating  from  street  to 
street,  as  uncertain  of  definite  locality  for  any  considerable 
length  of  time  as  the  life  of  political  administrations  or 
the  official  tenure  of  the  postmaster.  Street  railroads  were 
then  unheard  of,  and  steam  fire  engines  were  unknown.  No 
ship  had  ever  weighed  anchor  in  our  harbor  for  European 
ports.  Within  the  twenty-five  years  Field  laid  the  first 
Atlantic  cable,  and  Cleveland  celebrated  the  event  by  a 
grand  illumination,  and  her  journals  uttered  rhapsodies. 
The  telephone,  which  Sir  Wm.  Thompson  pronounced  the 
marvel  of  marvels,  though  but  an  institution  of  j^esterday,  is 


AFTER    TWENTY-FIVE    YEARS.  15 

in  all  business  houses  and  in  maii3T  homes,  and  along  its 
mystic  and  wiry  channel  man  answers  unto  man  from  out 
of  the  realms  of  space,  as  spirit  answers  unto  spirit  from 
out  of  the  vasty  deep.  And  as  though  science  was  impatient 
at  our  longer  groping  in  municipal  darkness  she  has  inspired 
her  distinguished  devotee  to  display  unto  man  the  last  great 
wonder  of  the  world.  Obedient  unto  her  command  Charles 
F.  Brush  has  set  electric  meteors  in  the  sky. 

And  now  from  17,000  in  1854  Cleveland  has  become  a  city 
of  nearly  200,000  inhabitants,  with  vast  wealth,  great  in- 
dustries, and  wonderful  enterprises.  How  much  history  and 
what  wondrous  events  are  crowded  into  the  two  decades. 
The  rebellion  of  the  Sepoys  of  India,  Jesse  Brown,  the 
Slogan  of  the  Highlanders,  and  the  relief  of  Lucknow.  The 
emancipation  of  the  Russian  serf,  the.  allied  armies  of  Balak- 
lava  and  Sebastopol.  Magenta,  Solferino  and  the  Quadrilat- 
eral. Garibaldi,  Count  Cavour  and  united  Italy.  Civil  war 
and  emancipation  in  the  United  States.  Napoleon  and 
Sedan,  Paris  and  the  Commune,  Von  Moltke,  Bismarck, 
William  and  the  German  Empire.  Political  revolution  in 
the  Twentieth  Congressional  district  of  Ohio,  and  thunder  in 
the  Fifth  ward  of  Cleveland.  The  days  of  the  prophecy  are 
fulfilled.  The  record  of  twenty-five  years  is  closed.  Open 
the  new  books. 


16  MEMORIES    AND    COINCIDENCES. 


MEMORIES  AND  COINCIDENCES. 


1\  VT  OST  people  are  pleasantly  affected,  even  though  there  be 
^**-  a  tinge  of  sadness,  when,  in  mature  years  or  advanced 
life,  they  meet  with  persons  or  incidents  that  have  an  intimate 
connection  with  the  first  thoughts  of  their  childhood  Or  the 
associations  of  their  youth. 

The  writers  first  recollections  of  a  book,  other  than  the 
ponderous  Bible  of  the  grandfather,  Watts'  l^mns  and  the 
almanac  that  hung  by  a  loop  over  the  fire-place,  was  one,  to 
us,  very  mysterious  and  perplexing,  as  it  absorbed  the  atten- 
tion for  mam-  da}*s  of  a  sister,  a  little  our  senior,  making  her 
thoughtful  and  uncommunicative,  and  depriving  us  of  our 
principal  social  comfort.  One  evening  when  she  had  pored 
long  and  silently  over  the  book,  m}*  father  said  to  her,  "Come, 
it  is  time  you  were  abed/'  She  dropped  one  hand  and  untied 
one  shoe,  not  raising  her  eyes  from  the  book  and  making  no 
further  progress  towards  retiring.  After  awhile  he  repeated 
his  admonition,  when  she  untied  the  other  shoe  in  the  same 
listless  manner,  but  kept  on  reading  page  after  page.  At  last 
he  said  in  a  quiet  wa}'  to  our  mother,  "What  on  earth  is  that 
child  reading?"  '-'Oh,"  she  replied,  "she  is  reading  about 
Robbins  and  Rile}',  who  were  cast  away  on  the  desert  of 
Sahara."  The  mental  photograph  is  dim,  and  we  do  not 
remember  if  she  went  to  bed  at  all.  One  warm  summer's 
day,  after  she  had  finished  the  book,  she  took  us  to  a  shad}' 
grove  by  the  roadside,  where  there  was  a  small  spring  of  cold 
water  bubbling  up  into  a  little  basin  in  the  earth,  which  would 
hold,  perhaps,  two  quarts,  and  where  we  both  lay  down  and 
drank  heartily,  but  the  little  fountain  seemed  to  be  just  as  full 


MEMORIES    AND    COINCIDENCES.  17 

as  before.  She  said,  "  Bobbins  could  drink  all  the  water  in 
that  spring  at  once."  "I  don't  know  Robbins,"  I  said.  Then 
she  told  us  of  the  wonderful  book  she  had  been  reading — of 
an  ocean,  ships,  sailors,  winds,  wrecks — of  a  great  desert, 
Arabs;  and  lastl}*  of  the  terrible  hunger  and  thirst  of  two  men, 
Robbins  and  Rile}'.  One  night  we  awoke  with  a  burning 
thirst,  and  our  mother  brought  a  cup  of  water,  which  we  com- 
pletely drained,  when  she  assured  us  we  should  not  be  thirsty 
any  more,  for  we  had  drank  enough  for  Robbins  and  Riley 
both.  When  large  enough  to  carry  the  "  drink  "  in  the  hay 
field,  men  would  sa}',  "  Hurry  up,  bo}*,  for  we're  dryer  than 
Robbins."  For  many  years  the  tale  of  Robbins  was  read  in 
families  and  told  at  school,  and  the  sufferings  of  Robbins  be- 
came the  proverbial  standard  for  excessive  hunger  and  thirst. 
A  few  years  since,  and  more  than  forty  years  after  what  we 
have  related,  and  when  we  had  supposed  that  the  hero  of  the 
narrative  had  passed  awa}-,  even,  perhaps,  before  we  had 
heard  the  story,  we  read  one  evening  in  the  Plain  Dealer 
an  extended  and  interesting  obituary  of  Mr.  Jason  Robbing 
of  Solon,  in  which  we  were  surprised  and  gratified  to  learn 
that  the  hero  from  childhood,  and  of  the  mysterious  book, 
had  lived  for  many  years  in  that  peaceful  and  romantic  town, 
a  prominent  citizen  and  magistrate,  and  the  father  of  sons 
and  daughters  who  revered  him  in  life  and  lamented  him  in 
death.  We  could  hardly  have  been  more  astonished  had  we 
been  told  that  the  re-animated  form  of  Daniel  Defoe  had 
shaken  off  the  one  hundred  and  fifty  years  mortuary  dust  of 
Bunhill  Fields,  and  was  discussing  with  Swift,  and  Addison, 
and  Pope,  at  the  London  Coffee  House,  the  merits  of  the 
Tattler  and  Spectator,  and  the  virtues  of  Queen  Anne,  and 
that  Robinson  Crusoe  had  "  sold  out "  on  Juan  Fernandez, 
and  was  cultivating  Catawba  grapes  on  Kelly's  Island. 

A  few  summers  afterward  we  visited  the  ancient  homestead 
among  the  green  hills  of  New  England,  drank  at  the  same 
little  spring  where  we  heard  the  story  forty-five  years  before, 

9 


18  MEMORIES    AND    COINCIDENCES. 

and  named  it  "  Bobbins'  Spring."  As  no  element  in  nature 
or  constituent  particle  in  the  eternal  circuit  and  transmutation 
is  ever  lost,  we  could  not  but  reflect  upon  the  possibility  that 
some  infinitesimal  drop  of  the  very  wave  that  had  lashed  the 
wreck  of  the  sailor,  had  been  drawn  up  in  the  water  spout  of 
the  torid  zone  and  wafted  in  fleecy  clouds  to  the  cooler  regions 
of  the  North,  to  fall  in  rain  upon  the  mountains,  to  perculate 
through  the  soil,  and,  bubbling  up  in  the  little  spring,  had 
quenched  the  thirst  of  the  haymaker  who  claimed  to  have 
been  dryer  than  Bobbins. 

Cotemporaneously  with  the  same  early  events,  and  for  how 
many  years  before  we  do  not  know,  there  was  sung,  by  young 
and  old  alike,  probably  the  first  humorous  lyric  in  this  coun- 
try that  had  become  universal,  if  not  national — 

Old  Grimes  is  dead,  that  good  old  man, 

We  ne'er  shall  see  him  more ; 
He  used  to  wear  a  long  blue  coat, 

All  buttoned  down  before. 

What  "Auld  Lang  Syne  "  is  to  the  Scot  in  social  and  frater- 
nal sentiment,  "Old  Grimes"  is  to  the  children,  at  least  of 
America,  in  quiet  humor. 

We  do  not  remember  what  has  been  written  regarding  the 
time  and  occasion  of  its  production,  but  of  late  we  have  been 
inclined  to  believe  there  must  have  been  in  Providence  Plan- 
tations some  good  old  man  whose  name  the  genial  author, 
probabty  without  premeditation,  made  celebrated.  Simple  in 
its  structure  and  rhythm,  it  has  been  the  foundation  and  super- 
structure of  endless  parodies,  more  or  less  amusing,  and  so 
much  so,  that  we  do  not  feel  quite  sure  that  we  even  know 
the  original  in  its  purity,  for  children  used  to  sing: 

Old  Grimes'  wife  makes  butter  and  cheese; 

Old  Grimes  he  drinks  the  whey. 
There  came  a  North  wind  from  the  South, 

And  blew  old  Grimes  away. 


MEMORIES    AND    COINCIDENCES.  19 

Whatever  might  have  been  the  excellent  industry  of  Mrs. 
Grimes,  or  the  taste  and  habits  of  the  old  gentleman  in  the 
matter  of  the  "whey,"  it  is  hardly  to  be  presumed  that  the 
most  facetious  and  rollicksome  humorist  would  seriously 
record  the  "taking  off"  by  any  such  counter  currents. 

The  writer  remembers  to  have  been  one  of  several  children 
who  constituted  a  "crowner's  quest,"  sitting  upon  the  body  of 
a  most  worthy  speckled  hen,  which  to  our  sorrow  we  had 
found  dead.  That  she  did  not  die  "honestly  in  her  bed"  was 
apparent.  That  it  was  a  case  of  suicide  we  did  not  believe, 
for  she  had  been  a  cheerful  and  happy  hen,  never  gloomy  or 
dyspeptic,  and,  besides,  her  head  was  "level."  That  it  was  a 
case  of  hen  slaughter,  by  some  person  "to  the  jury  unknown," 
we  agreed.  The  foreman,  a  girl  of  nine  years,  whose  head 
was  full  of  the  rlryme  and  rhythm  of  Old  Grimes,  drew  up  the 
verdict  in  the  following  form,  "  to  wit  "- 

"Somebody  's  killed  our  speckled  hen, 

We  wish  they'd  let  her  be, 
She  used  to  lay  two  eggs  a  day, 

And  Sundays  she  laid  three." 

It  is  questionable  whether  the  last  two  lines  were  original 
with  our  foreman.  Hens  of  late  years  have,  in  the  same  met- 
rical style,  been  credited  with  the  like  wonderful  fecundity, 
and,  as  the  jury  did  not  publish  their  verdict  in  the  journals 
of  that  day,  those  two  lines  must  have  had  a  prior  existence. 
Evidently  a  case  of  infringement  of  copyright  or  plagiarism. 
The  true  verdict  is  compiled  in  the  first  two  lines,  as  it  was 
not  the  province  of  the  jury  to  pass  encomiums  upon  the  de- 
ceased, or  "seek  her  merits  to  disclose."  Learned  ornitholo- 
gists and  hen  fanciers  do  not  agree  upon  the  deposit  of  more 
than  one  egg  a  day,  and  would  reject  unanimously  the  state- 
ment of  the  third  egg  on  Sunday.  The  idea  undoubtedly 
arose  from  the  circumstance  that,  unbeknown  to  the  jurors, 
two  or  more  "strong-minded"  and  "advanced"  hens,  imbued 


20  M  K. M OKIES    AND    COINCIDENCES. 

with  Fourierism  and  French  philosophy,  had  essayed  to  dem- 
onstrate the  utility  and  practicability  of  a  co-operative  hen's 
nest. 

But  to  whatever  trivial  uses  the  rhyme  or  rhythm  might 
have  been  put,  the  true  and  original  Old  Grimes  was  affec- 
tionatel}T  regarded,  and  will  be  pleasing!}'  remembered  by  all. 

Some  few  years  since  there  lived  and  died  in  Cleveland  an 
aged  and  venerable  gentleman.  Judge  Greene.  lie  had  lived 
his  last  quiet  and  peaceful  years  with  a  daughter,  the  wife  of 
a  clergyman  and  pastor  of  one  of  the  churches  of  Cleveland, 
in  the  enjoyment  of  a  rich  and  extensive  library,  and  sur- 
rounded by  many  treasures  of  art  and  souvenirs,  the  accumu- 
lation of  many  years  of  cultured  and  scholarly  taste.  He  was 
undoubtedly  a  graduate  of  Brown  University,  was  a  distin- 
guished member  of  the  Rhode  Island  bar  and  a  Judge  of 
that  State  in  earlier  }'ears,  and  a  cotemporary  at  the  bar 
and  neighbor  of  Tristam  Burgess,  the  impulsive  and  vehe- 
ment orator,  whose  towering  bald  head  and  Roman  nose 
obtained  for  him  the  sobriquet  of  the  "  bald  eagle,"  and  the 
first  of  Northern  statesmen  who,  in  Congress,  in  addition  to 
the  graceful  elegance  of  classic  speech,  dealt  at  times  in  the 
ringing  coin  of  sarcasm  and  invective  —  who  pictured  the 
desolation  of  New  England  when,  in  a  certain  contingency, 
the  fox  would  lurk  among  the  ruins  of  her  habitations,  the 
bittern  would  cry  in  her  streets,  and  the  owl  make  her  silent 
and  gloomy  abode  upon  the  altars  of  the  sanctuary.  And 
who,  in  reference  to  the  same  picture,  uttered  the  well  remem- 
bered tkHodie,  hodie,  delenda  est  Carthago''-  — who,  pointing 
his  finger  at  the  arrogant  and  bitter  John  Randolph,  said  he 
thanked  his  God  that  He  had  ordained  by  an  inexorable  law 
in  nature  that  monster  cannot  propagate  monster — otherwise 
this  world  would  become  a  pandemonium  and  a  howling 
wilderness  of  sin. 

Judge  Greene  was  the  author  of  -Old  Grimes/'  We  did 
not  know  of  his  residence  here  until  the  announcement  of  his 


MEMORIES    AND    COINCIDENCES.  21 

death  ;  and  the  silent  and  unknown  tear  of  a  stranger  was 
dropped  to  the  memor}-  of  the  genial  author  of  the  first 
humorous  lyric  of  our  lisping  childhood. 

When,  more  than  a  generation  since,  the  children  of  New 
England  graduated  from  the  easy  lessons  to  "  hard  reading  " 
in  the  standard  school  reader  of  the  "  first  class/'  they  found 
among  the  selections  of  poetry  a  sweet  and  affecting  poem  of 
Mrs.  Emma  C.  Embury,  descriptive  of  the  sad  calamity  of  a 
Mrs.  Blake,  of  Arlington,  Vermont,  who  perished  in  a  snow- 
storm in  going  from  a  neighbor's  house  to  her  home,  on  foot 
and  alone,  except  her  infant  child.  It  was  one  of  those  sud- 
den and  terribly  cold  northeast  storms  that  come  down  from 
Baffin's  Bay  and  the  home  of  the  iceberg,  and  sweep  with 
irresistible  fury  over  the  Green  Mountains. 

"O  God,''  she  cried,  in  accents  wild, 
"  If  I  must  perish,  save  my  child  !  " 

So  folding  the  baby  more  tenderly,  if  possible,  to  her 
bosom,  she  sank  down  to  die.  Pursuit  was  hastily  made  for 
her,  but  she  was  reached  only  to  answer  her  prayer  for  her 
•child.  Removing  the  snow  and  unfolding  her  mantle, 

The  babe  looked  up  and  sweetly  smiled. 

There  are  but  few  people  who  read  poetry  unfamiliar  with 
those  lines,  and  we  have  seen  some  pretty  old  children  read 
them  with  trembling  voice  and  tearful  eyes. 

It  was  one  of  the  most  pleasant  surprises  of  our  life,  when, 
but  a  few  years  since,  we  learned  that  the  "babe,"  whose 
sweet  smile  in  the  snowy  tomb  the  gifted  poetess  has 
made  immortal  as  the  spirit  of  the  mother,  was  a  lady  of 
Cleveland,  and  her  brother  a  member  of  Congress  for  the 
Medina  district. 

As  early  as  about  1830  there  was  a  celebrated  revivalist 
preacher  laboring  ostensibly  for  the  conversion  of  souls  in 
the  cities  and  large  villages  of  New  England  by  the  name  of 
Burchard,  of  very  forcible  and  effective  oratorical  powers,  but 


22  MEMORIES    AND    COINCIDENCES. 

somewhat  arbitrary  and  dictatorial  in  his  spirit,  excessively 
extravagant  of  expression,  and  eccentric  in  his  methods  of 
winning  souls.  Many  stories  were  afloat  among  the  people 
in  advance  of  his  coming,  of  what  he  said  and  did  in  other 
places.  Among  them  was  an  incident  which  occurred  in  a 
village  of  New  Hampshire.  The  meeting  house  was  full 
beyond  its  capacity  for  seating  the  congregation.  Deacon 
Studley  was  present,  with  his  large  family  and  some  friends, 
in  his  own  pew,  among  them  his  tall  son  a  little  under 
twenty  years  of  age.  To  accommodate  others  with  a  seat  the 
son  stood  up  leaning  against  a  pillar  in  the  pew  supporting 
the  gallery.  The  minister  not  appreciating  the  lack  of  seats 
had  ordered  all  standing  to  sit  down  which,  after  a  time,  by 
hook  or  crook  they  succeeded  in  doing,  except  the  deacon's 
tall  son  who  still  maintained  his  good  standing  in  the  church, 
of  which  he  was  a  member,  by  partially  covering  himself  in 
the  shade  of  the  friendly  post,  and  in  no  manner  discommod- 
ing others  of  the  audience.  In  the  midst  of  a  terrific  dis- 
course the  eye  of  Burchard  caught  the  tall  form  of  the  young 
man,  and  supposing  doubtless  that  his  standing  was  in 
contemptuous  disregard  of  his  request,  and  an  exhibition  of 
sinful  depravity  which  nothing  but  a  clerical  thunderbolt 
could  adequately  rebuke,  stopped,  and  pointing  his  finger  at 
young  Studley,  cried  out  in  terrific  tones — "  Sit  down  there, 
you  stack-pole  of  h — 11 ! "  Amid  the  sensation,  and  the 
humiliation  of  the  deacon's  family  and  friends,  the  young 
man  disappeared  from  the  offended  sight  of  the  erratic 
speaker,  and  the  eccentric  evangelist  continued  in  more 
gentle  and  less  personal  terms  to  address  other  sinners. 
Religious  people  generally  doubted  this  story,  considering  it 
as  an  emanation  from  some  irreligious  and  scandalous  source. 
Many  who  mischievously  told  it  to  the  annoyance  of  good 
people,  themselves  questioned  its  truth  ;  the  whole  tenor  and 
spirit  of  the  story  being  so  unclerical  and  shocking  to  every- 
body. 


MEMORIES    AND    COINCIDENCES.  23 

Of  late  years  a  very  pleasant  gentleman  of  considerably 
past  sixty  years,  yet  tall  and  erect,  Mr.  F.  G.  Studley,  has 
been  an  officer  in  attendance  upon  the  sessions  of  our  county 
courts.  Happening  one  day  to  enquire  of  him  as  to  the 
place  of  his  nativity,  he  named  a  town  of  New  Hampshire. 
In  alluding  to  many  events,  and  relating  some  anecdotes  of 
the  times  and  men  of  that  State,  he  asked  me  if  I  remem- 
bered, or  ever  heard  of  a  famous  religious  exhorter,  or 
preacher,  Burchard  ?  I  told  him  that  although  he  had  held 
meetings  near  my  home  in  Vermont,  when  I  was  a  small  lad,. 
I  had  never  seen  him,  but  that  I  could  remember  the  public 
excitement  caused  by  his  preaching,  and  many  strange 
stories  related  of  him  in  my  neighborhood.  Mr.  Studley 
then  told  me  of  the  incident  above  related,  particularly  and 
minutely,  and  concluded  by  saying,  "  The  story  is  literally 
true.  I  was  present  and  heard  it  —  and  there  are  reasons  for 
my  memory  to  be  clear  and  vivid  on  the  subject — I  am  my- 
self the  veritable  'stack-pole.'"  From  that  moment  we  felt 
that  our  acquaintance  with  Mr.  Studley,  instead  of  being  of 
only  a  few  years,  extended  over  a  period  of  more  than  forty.. 

During  the  last  years  of  the  war  there  came  to  our  door  an 
old  man  who  had  seen  eighty  years,  and  solicited  the  sawing 
of  a  pile  of  wood.  He  was  as  tall  as  General  Scott,  and  had 
a  head  that  balanced  on  his  shoulders  as  handsomely  as  the- 
great  head  of  the  Chief  Justice  of  the  United  States.  His 
fine  features,  white  beard  and  pleasant  eye,  secured  the  job.. 
We  felt  a  little  unhappy  that  so  old  a  man  should  be  necessi- 
tated to  saw  wood.  But  "  his  eye  was  not  dimmed  nor  his- 
natural  force  abated,"  and  he  seemed  very  cheerful.  Upon 
conversation  he  proved  to  be  a  Franco-German  of  Alsacer 
born  under  the  shadow  of  Strasburg  cathedral.  The  French 
and  German  tongues  were  alike  "mother"  to  him,  and  he- 
could  command  English  enough  to  communicate  very  welL 
He  asked  earnestly  about  the  progress  of  the  war,  in  which 
he  seemed  to  take  a  deep  and  sympathetic  interest  for  so  old 


24  MEMORIES    AND    ('<  )l  Nt'lDENCES. 

a  man.  We,  b}'  degrees.  began  to  take  special  delight  in 
telling  him  the  news,  which  at  that  time  was  coming  quite 
rapid!}'  and  of  a  favorable  diameter,  noticing  the  peculiar 
effect  it  had  upon  him.  He  seemed  to  have  a  nervous  solici- 
tude for  our  army  on  account  of  its  being  as  he  expressed  it, 
"in  the  enemy's  country."  We  told  him  of  Sherman  and  his 
army  —  of  Chattanooga  and  the  "Battle  above  the  Clouds." 
He  seemed  to  snuff  the  battle  from  afar,  and  would  start  up 
like  an  old  war  horse  at  the  sound  of  a  bugle.  While  he  was 
at  work  the  news  came  of  the  taking  and  burning  of  Atlanta. 
We  hastened  to  tell  the  old  man.  He  dropped  his  saw, 
raised  both  hands  above  his  head,  and  with  face  upturned, 
and  a  countenance  like  the  Seer  in  the  Warning  of  Lochiel, 
when 

The  sunset  of  life  gave  him  mystical  lore, 
And  coming  events  cast  their  shadows  before, 

gave  a  cry  as  of  fearful  forebodings,  >k  Moscow.  Moscow!" 
He  seemed  to  see  a  vision  of  disaster  and  retreat.  With  a 
modest}'  characteristic  of  the  true  soldier,  which  we  found 
him  to  be,  he  had  never  said  a  word  about  his  own  history 
and  experiences,  but  we  think  he  wanted  to  talk  of  the  events 
of  his  early  manhood,  and  hoped  we  would  ask  him  some 
question  to  open  the  wa}'.  But  as  we  did  not  happen  to,  he 
modestly  held  out  to  us  his  left  hand,  the  first  and  second 
fingers  of  which  were  lapped  inward  at  the  second  joint,  and 
were  stiff  and  shrunken,  and  the  palm  having  a  scar  passing 
quite  across  the  whole  width.  We  had  noticed  that  he  did 
not  grasp  the  top  of  the  saw  frame,  but  guided  it  b}~  bearing 
upon  it  with  the  ball  of  his  thumb.  "  How  did  that  hap- 
pen ?  "  we  asked.  "  La  lance,"  he  replied.  "  The  lance  ?  " 
we  repeated,  supposing  it  the  result  of  some  unskillful  sur- 
gical operation.  "La  lance  de  le  Cosaque,"  he  added.  Seeing 
we  were  puzzled  to  resolve  his  meaning,  he  caught  a  broom 
handle,  and  "rallying  on  the  reserve  "  of  his  English,  made  a 


MEMORIES    AND    COINCIDENCES.  25 

feint  as  with  the  harpoon,  saying  :  <k  Spear,  spear,  Cossack's 
spear  !  "  The  scales  fell  from  our  e}^es.  "  Were  you  a  soldier 
in  the  campaign  of  Russia  ?  "  we  asked.  "  Yah,  oui,  yes," 
was  his  tripple  response  ;  and  he  fairly  danced  for  jo}'  that 
the  ice  had  been  broken.  A  series  of  questions  and  answers 
developed  the  fact  that  he  had  been  one  of  the  Great  Napo- 
leon's grenadiers.  He  raised  his  hand  more  than  a  foot 
above  his  head  to  show  the  height  of  the  bear  skin  cap,  in 
which  he  must  have  looked  as  formidable  as  the  first-born  of 
the  sons  of  Anak. 

He  had  witnessed  the  destruction  of  the  seven  thousand  in 
crossing  the  Vistula,  swollen  by  the  melting  snows  of  the 
Carpathian  mountains.  Had  fought  the  passage  of  the 
Dnieper  at  Smolenske,  and  had  passed  with  his  life  through 
the  battle  of  Borodino.  Had  seen  the  Kremlin  and  gazed  on 
the  flames  of  burning  Moscow.  Then  the  fatal  retreat — the 
snow,  the  icy  rivers,  the  cold  and  hunger ;  and  more  fearful 
than  all,  the  Cossacks  —  the  terrible  black  horse  cavahy  of 
the  Don  and  the  Volga.  When  one  day  it  fell  to  the  lot  of 
his  regiment  to  protect  the  rear,  the  Cossacks  made  a  dash, 
and  he  was  selected  by  one  horseman  as  a  victim  for  the 
lance,  but  the  stalwart  grenadier  in  the  desperation  of  the 
moment,  and  with  the  instincts  of  self-preservation,  clutched 
the  sharp  blade  of  the  spear  with  his  left  hand,  and  barely 
diverting  it  from  his  breast,  with  his  bayonetted  gun  in  his 
powerful  right  hand  unhorsed  the  Cossack.  We  asked  him 
the  fate  of  his  antagonist.  He  looked  as  if  one  had  asked 
him  a  secret,  and  with  a  subdued  voice  he  said  regretfully, 
'•I  left  him  dead  in  the  snow — war  is  very  bad."  We  felt 
glad  that  he  had  saved  his  own  life,  even  with  a  ruined 
hand,  onl}-  reflecting  sadly  upon  the  possibilit}'  that  children 
had  been  made  fatherless  and  a  wife  a  widow  in  the  Steppes 
of  Astrakhan. 

The  more  were  we  interested  in  this  recital  from  the  cir- 
cumstance that  in  our  school  days  we  had  written  of 


26  MEMORIES    AND    COINCIDENCES. 

Russia's  winter,  bleak  and  drear, 

When  Frenchmen  felt  the  Cossack's  spear  — 

and  were  gratified  in  the  confirmation  of  our  historical  allu- 
sion of  man}*  years  ago  by  a  living  witness. 

His  description  of  the  emaciated  condition  of  the  remnant 
of  that  great  army  of  invasion  that  survived  the  retreat,, 
resulting  from  mental  anxiety  in  addition  to  their  labors  and 
privations,  which  is  confirmed  by  history,  reminded  us  of  the 
phantom  march  and  echelon  of  the  skeletons  in  the  weird 
lines  of  Bishop  Arthur  Cleveland  Coxe,  which  we  have  not. 
read  for  more  than  thirty  years  : 

"  March,  march,  march — Earth  groans  as  they  tread, 
Each  carries  a  skull  going  down  to  the  dead  ; 
Every  stride,  every  stamp,  every  footfall  is  bolder, 
'Tis  a  skeleton's  tramp  with  a  skull  on  his  shoulder. 
What,  ho  !     How  they  tread  with  their  high  tossing  head, 
That  clay  covered  bone  going  down  to  the  dead." 

We  became  much  attached  to  the  gentle  old  soldier,  for  we 
found  in  him  one  of  the  last  witnesses  of  a  wonderful  history. 

He  had  touched  the  visor  of  his  cap  in  salute  when  Bert- 
rand,  Ney,  Soult  and  Murat,  the  hero  of  the  waving  plume, 
had  dashed  along  the  line,  and  presented  arms  when  the 
Emperor,  "grand,  gloomy  and  peculiar,"  had  passed  in 
review  their  serried  ranks.  He  had  seen  the  Hundred  Days 
with  their  promises  and  their  disasters  ;  had  sighed  over  Elba 
and  sorrowed  over  St.  Helena ;  had  lived  to  see  France 
reclaim  the  hallowed  dust  from  the  rockj-  tomb  in  the  sea, 
and  had  joined  with  her  chivalry  in  the  last  honors  to- 
the  ashes  of  a  NAME. 

"  Napoleon  comes,  but  Moscow's  spires 
Have  ceased  to  glow  with  hostile  fires  ; 

No  spirit  in  a  whisper  deep, 

Proclaims  it  where  the  Cffisars  sleep, 

Or  sighs  from  column,  tower  or  dome, 
A  name  that  once  was  feared  in  Rome  : 


MEMORIES    AND    COINCIDENCES.  2T 

For  life  and  power  have  passed  away, 
And  he  is  here  a  King  of  Clay." 

After  a  time  we  had  the  pleasure  of  telling  him  of  the 
"  March  to  the  Sea,"  and  finally  of  the  culmination  of  the 
mighty  struggle  in  Lee's  surrender  to  General  Grant.  The 
old  man  wept  for  joy,  and  said,  Seigneur,  tu  laisses  maintenant 
oiler  ton  serviteur  en  paix !  " — "  Lord,  now  let  thou  thy  servant 
depart  in  peace." 

One  day  more  wood  came,  but  the  old  man  came  not.  In 
the  evening  we  went  far  out  on  one  of  the  long  avenues  or 
the  beautiful  city  to  call  for  him  ;  but  he  had  made  his  last 
bivouac,  the  tattoo  had  beat,  the  camp  fires  were  extinguished, 
and  the  soldier  of  Borodino,  Crispin,  the  grenadier,  had  gone 
to  join  his  great  captain  and  meet  his  God. 

Recently  there  died  in  Cleveland  General  Donald  McLeod, 
having  just  completed  the  one  hundred  and  first  year  of  his 
age.  We  do  not  know  how  one  whose  career  was  so  distin- 
guished and  eventful  in  foreign  lands,  should  have  passed  the 
evening  of  his  life,  and  found  his  grave  in  our  city,  except 
that  it  was  the  home  of  sons  and  daughters.  Born  in  Scot- 
land, educated  at  the  university,  a  school  fellow  of  Lord 
Byron,  an  officer  in  the  British  Army,  serving  in  many  wars 
and  in  many  countries,  notably  at  Lundy's  Lane,  at  Waterloo,, 
where  he  was  wounded,  and  in  the  series  of  battles  in  the 
Peninsular  Campaign,  ending  with  the  battle  at  Corunna, 
overlooking  the  Bay  of  Biscay,  and  the  harbor  from  which 
sailed  the  Duke  of  Medina  Sidonia,  and  the  Invincible 
Armada  in  1588,  and  where  he  was  with  Sir  John  Moore 
when  he  was  killed  in  1809,  and  participated  in  that  houi  of 
gloom  when  they  buried  him  at  dead  of  night,  exposed  to 
the  random  guns  of  the  foe,  without  funeral  note  or  farewell 
shot.  Young,  gallant,  and  sympathetic,  and  possessing  a 
secret  of  the  hero's  heart,  McLeod  sighed  for  the  sadness  of 
one  in  the  house  of  the  Statesman  Pitt,  whose  hopes  the 


28  .MKMOR1KS    ANT)    COINCIDENCES. 

events  of  that  night  would  blast  forever.  The  beautiful  and 
accomplished  niece  of  the  statesman  upon  the  receipt  of  the 
news  of  the  fate  of  her  lover,  forsook  the  society  of  the 
British  court.,  and  retired  beyond  European  civilization. 
Possessed  of  wealth  she  built  a  stately  mansion  on  a  spur  of 
Mt.  Lebanon  in  Asia,  overlooking  the  Mediterranean  Sea,  and 
where,  until  her  death  not  many  years  since,  she  held  a 
hospitable  court,  was  visited  by  distinguished  Europeans  and 
Americans,  among  the  latter  General  Cass,  and  where  she  was 
held  in  worshipful  veneration  by  the  Saracens,  and  saluted  by 
them  as  the  second  Zenobia,  Queen  of  Palmyra.  Such  was 
Lad}'  Hester  Stanhope,  the  affianced  of  Sir  John  Moore. 

The  boys  of  to-day  who  read  at  school  Wolfe's  memorable 
stanzas — '-The  Burial  of  Sir  John  Moore,"  will  feel  a  pride 
that  the  bones  of  Donald  McLeod,  his  comrade  and  friend, 
find  fitting  rest  within  the  Forest  City.  Conscious  that  a 
patriot  and  hero  rests  within  our  gates,  we  feel  something  of 
the  spirit  of  resignation  poetically  expressed  by  the  German 
poet  Mueller,  father  of  the  Sanskrit  scholar,  Max  Mueller, 
when  the  Suliote-Greek  hero,  Marko  Bozzaris,  who  fell  in  the 
midnight  attack  upon  the  Turkish  camp  at  Karpinisi,  was 
entombed  at  Missolonghi  — 

"  Open  wide,  proud  Missolonghi, 
Open  wide  thy  portals  high  ; 
Where  repose  the  bones  of  heroes, 
Teach  us  cheerfully  to  die." 


OUR    TRAVELERS    AND    WRITERS. 


OUR  TRAVELERS  AND  WRITERS. 


R  the  last  ten  years  Cleveland  has  unquestionably 
furnished  its  full  quota  of  American  citizens  who  have 
annually  visited  P]urope.  Among  the  very  large  number 
who  have  crossed  the  Atlantic,  doubtless  many  have  under- 
taken the  journe}r  for  the  reason  that  it  was  deemed  a 
pleasurable  fashion  to  visit  at  least  London  and  Paris. 
Others  who  had  made  a  good  thing  on  the  rise  of  acre  prop- 
erty, and  believe  that  the  contracts  which  they  held  for  sheep 
pastures  ten  miles  out,  were  destined  soon  to  become  West 
Ends,  Islingtons,  or  at  least  Bois  de  Bolognes,  to  a  city  whose 
area  and  circumference  already  dwarf  the  cities  of  Aflred  and 
Charlemagne  to  the  most  insignificant  of  rotten  boroughs, 
carpet-bag  over  to  take  a  run  of  the  streets  and  saloons  of 
modern  towns,  because  they  feel  in  good  condition  and  can  go 
and  come  for  the  price  of  a  lot  on  Tinker's  Creek  or  at  Five 
Mile  Lock,  one  per  cent,  down  and  the  balance  in  ninety-nine 
annual  instalments,  secured  by  mortgage  on  the  premises. 
Others  still  go  for  the  reason  they  are  able  to  and  find  a 
harmless  pleasure  in  imitating  the  movements  of  persons  of 
superior  consideration.  Such  undertake  the  tour  of  Europe 
with  precisely  the  same  incentive,  and  with  something  of  the 
confusion  of  ideas  of  Alderman  Shodd3T,  who  had  heard  his 
daughter  speak  of  the  parvenus,  and  thinking  that  meant  peo- 
ple of  culture  and  high  social  position,  to  whom  he  felt  he 
must  be  akin,  by  virtue  of  the  wealth  he  had  suddenly 
acquired  by  his  army  contracts,  and  noticing  in  his  paper  a 
paragraph  to  the  effect  that  society  at  Saratoga  was  that  sea- 
son to  have  a  predominence  of  New  York  parvenus,  many  of 


30  OUR   TRAVELERS    AND    WRITERS. 

whom  had  already  arrived  there,  he  concluded  that  the 
aristocratic  habitues  of  that  old  time  fashionable  resort  had 
suddenly  closed  their  Madison  Square  and  Fifth  avenue  homes 
and  gone  thither,  remarked  to  his  wife  and  daughter  that 
they  had  better  be  getting  ready,  for  many  of  the  parvenus 
had  gone  already.  The  daughter  said  to  her  mother  she  did 
wish  father  wouldn't  try  to  use  French  words. 

Persons  of  like  aspirations  of  the  alderman  are  apt  to 
return  from  abroad  afflicted  with  the  tones  and  accents 
of  the  London  cockney,  affect  'alf  and  'alf  and  think  ale  can 
be  made  in  no  other  country  because  they  have  no  'ops  and 
T'ams  water,  or  with  a  horizontal  waxed  moustache,  and  so 
oblivious  of  their  vernacular  that  they  don't  remember  the 
name  of  potatoes,  which  they  had  loved  in  their  boyhood 
with  a  little  salt,  and  make  unpleasant  nasal  utterances  about 
pomme  de  terre.  But  such  traveled  profundity  is  less  amus- 
ing than  that  exhibited  by  the  wise  men  of  the  village  over 
the  boy's  spurious  Latin,  which  he  had  carved  on  the  rind  of 
the  large  yellow  vegetable  which  had  grown  in  the  cornfield  : 
ITI  SAP  UMP  KIN.  The  parson  said  it  looked  like  rather 
inelegant  Latin,  but  he  could  not  declare  the  interpretation 
thereof.  The  old  allopathic  physician  said  it  was  bastard 
Latin  and  most  probably  a  copy  of  a  prescription  of  the  new 
homoeopathic  doctor  who  had  recently  come  to  town.  The 
village  lawyer  and  the  new  fashionable  tailor  agreed  with 
each  other,  after  a  thorough  analysis  of  the  sentence,  that  it 
must  be  old  Law  latin,  but  of  a  period  long  subsequent  to  the 
Conquest  and  so  corrupted  by  Norman  French  that  they 
could  make  nothing  of  it.  The}^  were  all  astonished  at  the 
waggish  young  Daniel  who  had  witnessed  the  perplexity  of 
the  Magi  of  the  neighborhood,  when  he  came  forward  and 
triumphantly  declared  the  writing  —  It  is  a  pumpkin  ! 

Of  those  whose  purposes  in  traveling  were  merely  imita- 
tive or  aimless,  our  city's  record  is  tolerabty  clean  and  will 
compare  advantageously  with  any  other  American  city  in  the 


OUR    TRAVELERS    AND    WRITERS.  31 

number  of  persons  of  sense  and  refinement  who  in  recent 
j^ears  have  traveled,  whose  experience  abroad  was  to  them- 
. selves  an  intellectual  pleasure,  and  which  they  kindly  and 
generously  shared  with  their  less  favored  friends  at  home  and 
the  public  by  their  instructive  and  interesting  letters.  Of 
;some  of  the  earlier  ones  we  still  retain  a  pleasant  recollection. 
The  first  we  recall  were  the  letters  of  Flora  (Miss  Payne), 
published  in  the  Herald,  wherein  we  followed  her  with  excit- 
ing interest  through  London  and  the  British  Museum, 
through  Paris  and  the  Louvre,  to  the  Rhine,  to  Berlin,  to  Mt 
Blanc,  to  Vienna,  down  the  Danube,  where,  on  board  the 
rsteamer,  she  met  and  conversed  with  the  great  French  advo- 
cate, the  late  M.  Berry,  then  on  his  way  to  Constantinople  to 
speak  in  a  case  before  the  high  tribunal  of  the  Sultan. 
With  the  enthusiasm  of  his  youth  he  told  her  of  his  case 
and  the  points  of  his  brief,  which  she  restated  with  the  clear- 
ness and  technical  precision  of  an  old  legal  practitioner, 
although  herself  a  very  young  lady.  From  Constantinople 
we  sailed  in  imagination  with  her  through  the  Dardanelles 
and  JEgean,  to  Athens  and  the  Acropolis.  Here  she  wrote 
with  the  wisdom  of  an  old  Greek,  and  perhaps  with  some- 
thing of  the  spirit  with  which  Aspasia  conversed  with 
Socrates  and  Pericles.  Afterwards  we  heard  from  her  at 
Rome  and  the  Vatican,  then  at  Pompeii,  and  lastly  at  ancient 
Italica,  Grenada  and  Seville,  in  Spain.  Rarely,  if  ever,  have 
there  been  written  by  a  lady  letters  of  travels  more  instruc- 
tive and  admirable. 

Then  we  remember  the  letters  of  H.  S.  S.  (Stevens), 
initials  long  familiar  to  Clevelanders.  Those  to  which  we 
now  refer  were  written  from  Brazil  and  Spain.  The  latter  we 
recall  most  vividly  because  they  awakened  in  us  early  mem- 
ories of  Irving  and  the  Alhambra ;  the  Hall  of  the  Aben- 
•cerages  and  the  Fountain  of  the  Lions  ;  of  Andalusia  and 
•Grenada  ;  of  Boabdil  and  the  Moors ;  of  Isabella  and 
•Columbus.  These  letters  are,  perhaps,  extant  in  book  form 


32  OUR    TRAVELERS    AND    WRITERS. 

and  will  be  readable  when  their  intelligent  author  shall  have 
made  his  last  "  transfer." 

Later  still  came  from  Europe  the  letters  of  Myra  (Mrs.  A. 
W.  Fairbanks),  and  while  we  are  conscious  that  we  missed 
the  perusal  of  several  of  them,  the  few  we  did  read  impressed 
us  with  the  sensible  observations  of  the  writer,  her  happy 
selection  of  topics  which  seemed  always  to  be  the  very  sub- 
jects about  which  one  wished  her  to  discourse,  and  concern- 
ing which  she  communicated  to  her  admiring  readers  in  a 
style  so  un affected  and  unpretentious  as  to  lend  to  her  letters 
the  charm  of  gracefulness. 

The  readers  of  the  Plain  Dealer  for  man}'  years  have  been 
familiar  with  the  significant  (though  not  sacred)  initials  of  J. 
H.  8.  (Sargent),  who  has  favored  us  with  letters  from  Europe 
and  almost  everywhere  else,  but  more  recently  from  the 
Pacific  Coast.  No  letters  are  read  more  carefully  and 
thoughtfully  than  his.  Every  vein  of  his  dry,  quiet  humor, 
which  is  so  agreeable  in  his  manner,  is  watched  to  secure  the 
valuable  nugget  of  information  which  is  sure  to  turn  up  in 
every  paragraph.  Wherever  he  goes  on  the  surface  of  the 
earth  he  carries  in  his  eye,  compass,  chain  and  theodolite  ; 
can  tell  in  an  instant  where  to  cut  and  where  to  fill  and  the 
cost  thereof  ;  can  talk  intelligently  of  mines  and  minerals, 
improve  a  city  or  tell  the  best  place  to  build  a  new  one  ; 
observe  the  times  and  seasons,  and  tell  the  courses  of  the 
stars  and  put  it  all  on  paper  without  a  superfluous  word. 

The  most  recent  of  our  travelers  and  writers  is  Col.  Wm. 
Perry  Fogg,  whose  line  has  diverged  somewhat  from  ordinary 
paths.  First  a  journey  round  the  world,  the  record  of  which 
was  published  in  the  Cleveland  Leader,  and  subsequently 
published  in  a  book,  illustrated,  covering  Japan,  China, 
India  and  Egypt,  in  which  he  gave  the  clearest  view  of  the 
actual  looks  and  aspects  of  those  countries,  cities  and  peoples 
of  any  American  writer*  Being  in  Pekin  at  the  time  Mr. 
Seward  and  his  "retinue  were  there,  with  him  and  his  part}' 


OUR    TRAVELERS    AND    WRITERS.  33 

Col.  Togg  visited  and  inspected  a  section  of  the  Great  Wall. 
Recently  he  has  indited  Oriental  epistles  from  the  banks  of 
the  " fourth"  river,  which  at  an  early  day  served  to  water  the 
Garden  of  Eden.  Bab}'lon,  Bagdad  and  Nineveh  have  been, 
perhaps,  the  most  interesting  localities  in  his  journey,  and 
about  which  he  has  written  in  a  manner  both  entertaining  to 
his  readers  and  abundantly  creditable  to  himself.  Such  of 
his  letters  as  we  have  read  seem  quite  as  interesting  as  those 
of  Ba}Tard  Taylor,  on  kindred  subjects,  or  John  L.  Stevens 
from  Arabia  Petra  and  Yucatan  of  an  earlier  day,  so  far  at 
least  as  literary  merit  is  of  any  importance,  and  where  facts 
alone  are  sufficient  to  absorb  the  undivided  attention  of  the 
reader. 

Public  improvement  seems  to  have  been  for  some  time 
wholly  suspended  by  the  city  government  of  Bab}Tlon.  It  is 
rather  dull  times  there  now.  Business  property  is  not  sale- 
able, and  they  have  ceased  to  annex  the  adjoining  villages. 
The  Babylonian  city  treasurer  has  for  a  long  time  been 
unable  to  negotiate  a  single  street  improvement  bond,  and 
the  coupons  on  the  last  loan  of  Sennacharib,  to  prosecute  the 
war  against  Jerusalem,  went  to  protest  long  ago.  Still  the 
souvenirs  which  Col.  Fogg  brings  from  that  once  prosperous 
city  are  of  surpassing  interest.  Bricks  like  those  of  Babel, 
of  which  he  has  brought  home  fine  specimens,  with  the  in- 
variable cuniform  inscription  stamped  thereon,  could  not  be 
made  for  ten  dollars  a  thousand.  We  felt  old  age  crawling 
over  us  when,  one  day,  we  for  a  brief  moment  held  in 
our  hand  a  silver  coin  struck,  perhaps,  the  very  }~ear  when 
the  Persian  interfered  to  prevent  the  election  of  Belshazzar 
for  a  third  term — possibly  one  of  the  pieces  paid  Daniel  for 
the  interpretation  of  a  certain  important  writing  in  an  un- 
known tongue.  The  able  financier  of  the  Second  National 
Bank,  and  city  treasurer,  is  wearing  as  a  fob  a  seal  with 
strange  devices,  which  possibly  was  worn  by  Nebuchad- 
nezzar when  he  abdicated  his  throne  to  become  the  most 
3 


34  OUR   TRAVELERS   AND    WRITERS. 

renowned  granger  of  antiquity.  It  is  intimated  that  there  is 
a  book  in  press,  which  is  to  be  rich  in  new  and  striking 
illustrations  of  these  ancient  ruins.  "  Arabistan,  the  Land  of 
the  Arabian  Nights,"  will  surprise  and  delight  the  friends  of 
the  author. 

Leonard  Case,  Jr.,  was  among  the  earliest  of  our  citizens 
who  travelled  abroad.  He  visited  Europe  in  1856,  but  never 
published  any  portion  of  the  elaborate,  critical  and  voluminous 
journal  which  he  kept.  His  appreciative  mind,  close  and  crit- 
ical observations  of  institutions,  ancient  and  modern,  and  his 
knowledge  of  the  languages  of  Europe  and  the  literature  of 
the  world,  increased  among  his  intimate  friends  the  charm  of 
his  companionship.  But  for  his  eminent  financial  independ- 
ence and  the  constant  care  of  extensive  interests,  he  would 
possibty  have  been  a  renowned  professor  of  mathematics  in 
Yale  or  Harvard.  A  promoter  of  learning,  and  the  founder  of 
institutions  thereof,  he  was  besides  a  gentleman  of  more  than 
ordinary  literary  genius,  and  the  evidences  of  which  he  has 
left  behind,  need  but  an  editor  to  make  a  delightful,  interest- 
ing and  instructive  book.  The  versatility  of  his  genius  has 
heretofore  been  manifested  to  other  than  his  social  intimates 
in  at  least  two  published  literary  performances,  which  we- 
recall  from  the  memory  of  a  past  pleasure.  The  first  was  a 
legend  of  chivalry  entitled,  "Treasure  Trove"  —  a  poem- 
occupying  several  pages  in  the  Atlantic  Monthly  as  early, 
perhaps,  as  about  1860,  since  published  separately  and  hand- 
somely illustrated.  Excellent  in  versification  it  is,  moreover, 
rich  and  delightful  in  humor,  and  equal  to  the  best'  produc- 
tions of  Holmes,  and  in  many  respects  surpasses  the  rollicking 
vein  which  made  James  Russell  Lowell  popular  and  famous. 
The  second  is  a  little  poetic  gem  entitled,  "Rondonella" 
the  swallow  —  a  rendering  of  the  Italian  of  Tomasso  Grossi's 
Marco  Visconte — the  same  whereon  Bryant  and  others  have 
exercised  their  practiced  art ;  a  comparision  of  which,  some 
years  since,  was  made  by  the  Cleveland  Herald,  by  publish- 


OUR    TRAVELERS    AND    WRITERS.  35 

ing  the  original  and  three  translations.  The  conclusion  of 
competent  judges  was,  that  if  Bryant  had  developed  the 
whole  spirit  and  soul  of  the  Italian,  Mr.  Case  had  surpassed 
it  by  a  new  poem  on  the  same  subject.  Every  line  of  his 
awakens  the  mind  to  contemplation,  and  fills  the  heart  and 
soul  with  a  sweet  sadness. 

Our  venerable  and  honored  citizen,  Harvey  Rice,  should 
have  the  first  place  in  our  regard  as  the  father  of  literary 
productions,  as  he  is  the  recognized  father  of  the  laws  which 
are  the  foundation  of  the  public  school  system  of  the  State, 
under  and  by  virtue  of  which  thousands  have  obtained  their 
common  school  education,  and  in  many  instances  have  been 
inspired  thereby  to  avail  themselves  of  the  higher  branches 
of  learning,  and  ultimately  to  become  honored  graduates 
of  our  own  colleges,  and  those  of  other  States.  Born  in  the 
same  vicinity  where  Bryant  first  opened  his  eyes  upon  the 
world  and  the  beauties  of  romantic  and  poetic  nature, 
graduated  at  the  same  institution,  and  cherished  by  the 
same  Alma  Mater  as  the  author  of  Thanatopsis,  he  has  been, 
even  amidst  the  toils  and  struggles  of  pioneer  life,  a  student, 
poet  and  philosopher,  recognized  no  less  abroad  than  at  home 
in  the  productions  of  his  pen.  While  Mr.  Rice's  mind  has 
ever  been  in  harmony  with  the  philosophy  and  literary  tastes 
of  Bryant,  whom  he  deems  the  first  and  most  renowned  of 
American  poets,  there  is  much  in  his  form  and  features,  grave 
aspects,  but  genial  and  charming  social  intercourse,  which 
suggests  the  beloved  Whittier,  the  Quaker  poet  of  the  Merri- 
mack.  We  remember  man}r  years  ago  his  attractive  little 
volume,  "  Mount  Vernon  and  other  Poems,"  which  from  time 
to  time  has  been  followed  by  essays,  originally  contributed 
to  magazines,  and  finally  published  in  neat  and  handsome 
volumes  covering  such  themes  as,  "  Nature  and  its  Lessons," 
"  Woman  and  her  Sphere,"  "  Education  and  its  Errors," 
"  America  and  her  Future,"  "  Life  and  its  Aspirations." 
More  recently  he  has  written  and  published  a  very  interest- 


36  OUR    TRAVELERS    AND    WRITERS. 

ing  volume  entitled,  "  Incidents  of  Pioneer  Life  in  the  Early 
Settlement  of  the  Connecticut  Western  Reserve."  He  still 
remains  to  look  back  upon  an  active,  successful  and  honored 
life  of  more  than  eighty  years. 

David  W.  Cross,  the  Isaac  Walton  of  the  West,  has  illus- 
trated in  a  neat  little  volume  the  mysteries  of  angling  in  the 
murky  streams  of  Ohio,  and  the  bright  waters  and  rivers  of 
the  upper  lakes,  and  the  gunner's  art  as  practiced  in  the 
marshes  of  Lake  Erie,  and  in  the  wilds  and  woods  of 
Michigan.  Duck,  deer  and  fish,  captivated  with  his  work, 
each  in  their  accustomed  and  fashionable  season,  give  the 
author  and  his  friends  an  annual  reception  and  banquet. 

We  venture  the  freedom  to  remark  that  Mr.  John  Hay  is  a 
citizen  of  municipal  adoption,  "  with  all  that  that  implies/' 
which  is,  that  such  adoption  of  the  man  implies  a  tacit  con- 
sent to  a  claim  laid  by  the  people  to  an  interest  in  his  intel- 
lectual estate  and  literary  property'. 

There  is  a  long  list  of  heirs  and  legatees  in  our  harbors 
and  upon  our  rivers  and  lakes,  as  also  upon  the  foot-boards 
of  the  fiery  giants  that  glide  over  the  tracks  of  steel,  that 
center  in  our  city  and  span  the  continent,  in  the  last  will  and 
testament  and  humane  resolve  of  "  Jim  Bludso  ;  "  and  "  Little 
Breeches  "  has  been  and  ever  will  be  the  prototj'pe  of  a  thou- 
sand and  one  little  Gabes  in  our  city  and  elsewhere,  whose 
white  "milk  teeth"  and  precocious  spirit,  in  disaster  or 
death,  have  awakened  the  mind  of  a  rustic  and  pioneer 
father  to  a  belief  in  God  and  angels,  though  unable,  from  lack 
of  comprehension,  "to  go  much  on  the  prophets."  These 
little  border-land  poems  are  a  smile  and  a  tear — lessons  of 
life  —  teaching  us  of  human  affections  under  humble  condi- 
tions ;  that  though 

Skins  may  differ,  still  affection 
Dwells  in  white  and  black  the  same. 

We  had  rather  be  equal  to  the  authorship  of  these  poems 
than  to  the  grandest  expressions  of  Byron,  inspired  by 


OUR    TRAVELERS    AND    WRITERS.  37 

Athens  and  the  Isles  of  Greece,  where  "burning  Sappho  loved 
and  sung."  An  official  residence  at  Madrid  at  an  eventful 
period  of  the  government  of  Spain  enabled  him  to  give  us, 
in  "  Castilian  Days,"  a  series  of  pleasant  papers  —  pictures  of 
the  Spain  of  to-da}',  with  back-ground  glimpses  of  its  his- 
toric glories,  not  the  least  attractive  and  impressive  of  which 
is  "  The  Cradle  and  Grave  of  Cervantes." 

Captain  P.  Gr.  Watmough,  by  reason  especially  of  his  long 
service  in  the  navy  of  the  United  States,  has  traversed  more 
oceans  and  seas,  and  is  familiar  with  more  continents, 
countries  and  cities  of  the  globe  than  an}^  other  citizen  ;  and 
his  opportunities,  observations  and  experiences  constitute  a 
fund  from  which  his  vivacious  and  genial  spirit,  and  personal 
accomplishments,  can,  if  he  will,  evolve  one  of  the  most 
readable  of  books.  He  will  continue  amenable  to  the  charge  of 
neglect  of  duty  until  he  furnishes  his  friends,  and  the  public, 
"  The  Outward  and  Inward  Experiences  of  the  Life  of  a 
Naval  Officer."  For  two  or  three  years  last  past  Captain 
Watmough  has  resided  in  England,  and  spent  some  time 
upon  the  continent,  dividing  his  time  somewhat  between 
business  and  pleasure  ;  but  now  that  he  has  returned  to  his 
elegant  home  and  the  serenity  of  domestic  life,  we  most 
respectfully  solicit  his  early  devotion  to  a  narrative  of 
nautical  experiences  and  naval  history. 

Constance  Fennimore  Woolson  is  a  writer  of  good  repute 
and  stands  high  in  public  regard  for  her  many  papers  con- 
tributed to  the  Atlantic  Monthly  and  other  magazines,  and 
though  some  }Tears  have  elapsed  since  she  was  a  very  young 
lady  in  Cleveland  societ}T,  and  now  living  in  Europe,  she  is 
remembered  and  cherished  as  a  daughter  of  the  late  Mr.  C. 
J.  Woolson,  long  and  well  known  in  business  circles  and 
eminent  for  his  intelligence,  rare  wit  and  genial  humor,  and 
many  other  social  attractions. 

Levi  F.  Bauder,  seeking  mental  relaxation  from  figures, 
wanders  off  into  archaeology,  dwells  among  the  mound  build- 


38  OUR    TRAVELERS    AND    WRITERS. 

ers  for  a  season,  and  amuses  himself  and  delights  his  friends 
in  "  Passing  Poetic  Fancies,"  of  which  he  has  given  us  a 
modest  little  volume  : 

"  Gone  are  the  oak-woods,  in  whose  prime 
The  Aztec  Druids  reared  their  mounds — 
Whose  dense  shade  formed,  in  later  time, 
The  fierce  Algonquins'  hunting  grounds;  "- 

Until  we  found  the  little  book  we  did  not  know  the  author 
of  "  Chanticleer,"  which  has  chimed  in  our  ears  for  a  decade, 
having  read  it  many  years  ago  in  a  New  Year's  Salutation  of 
the  newsboys. 

"  Bird  of  the  Dawn,  whose  bugle  notes 
Awake  the  echoes  of  the  morn, 
Whose  clarion  on  the  crisp  air  floats, 
And  heralds  forth  a  new  day  born  ;  — 

-:•:-  #  v  -:•:-  ;•:-  •*  * 

The  eagle,  caged,  will  sulk  and  cower; 
From  snow  the  lions  shrink  in  fear, 
But  neither  bars,  nor  frost,  nor  shower, 
Appall  the  heart  of  Chanticleer  !  " 

Mr.  Bander  is  purely  American  in  his  literary  tastes,  as 
he  never  illustrates  by  ancient  classical  allusions,  nor  uses  a 
simile  found  elsewhere  in  nature  than  between  the  two  oceans. 

It  was  a  pleasant  surprise  to  the  writer,  when,  but  a  few 
years  since,  he  learned  that  Mr.  J.  H.  A.  Bone,  the  grave  and 
sedate  literary  editor  of  the  Cleveland  Herald,  way  back  in 
1848  to  1853,  knew  the  narrow  and  crooked  streets,  short 
cuts  and  by-paths  of  Boston,  and  was  a  familiar  spirit  with 
the  wits  and  wags  of  the  "  Carpet-Bag,"  Shillaber,  "  Mrs. 
Partington";  Halpin,  "Miles  O'Reilly";  Hazewell,  Moore,  Wil- 
liam S.  Robinson,  "  Warrington,"  and  others,  and  oo-operated 
with  them  in  that  well-remembered  facetious  journal,  when 
"  Ensign  Jehial  Stebbings  "  was  its  candidate  for  the  presi- 
dency, only  a  little  later  than  when  "  Hosea  Biglow,"  James 


OUR    TRAVELERS    AND    WRITERS.  39 

Russell  Lowell,  said,  "  They  didn't  know  everything  down  in 
Judee,"  and  laid  out  the  bolting  politician  of  Middlesex,  by 
declaring  how 

"  John  P.  Robinson.     He 

Says  he  won't  vote  for  Governor  B."      / 

Mr.  Bone,  in  addition  to  his  valuable  journalistic  labors, 
has  found  time  to  contribute  many  papers  of  a  high  order  to 
the  Atlantic  Monthly  and  other  magazines,  and  is  regarded 
as  an  authority  in  Elisabethan  and  general  literature.  He  is, 
besides,  reputed  to  luxuriate  in  the  largest  and  richest  private 
library  in  the  city,  where  he  is  wont  to  entertain  and  delight 
a  choice  circle  of  devoted  and  appreciative  friends. 

More,  doubtless,  than  any  other  Cleveland  lady,  Mrs. 
Rebecca  Davis  Rickoff  may  be  regarded  as  a  professional 
litterateur.  A  daughter  of  the  late  Professor  William  M. 
Davis,  the  successor  of  Mitchel  as  director  of  the  Cincinnati 
Observatory,  she  obtained  that  thorough  culture,  which  it  was 
the  pride  of  a  considerate  father,  more  bountiful  than  many, 
to  bestow  upon  his  beloved  and  cherished  daughters.  Sev- 
eral years  since  this  lady  won  an  enviable  regard  in  social 
and  literary  circles,  not  only  for  the  many  meritorious  pro- 
ductions of  her  pen,  but  also  for  the  beauty  and  grace  of  her 
public  readings. 

Later  years  she  has  been  a  devoted  and  successful  author, 
largely  in  the  line  of  educational  books,  finely  illustrated, 
which  rank  highly  in  the  estimation  of  educators,  and  have 
endeared  her  name  to  the  hearts  of  thousands  of  the  youth- 
ful generation,  few  only  of  whom  will  ever  see  the  bright 
countenance  of  the  enthusiastic  author,  who  has  contributed 
so  abundantly  to  their  mental  progress  and  school-day 
delights. 

Mrs.  Rlckoff  's  essays  upon  educational  subjects  have  been 
numerous,  and  have  had  a  wide  circulation  in  the  journals  of 
the  country.  Among  them  are  noted  "Object  and  Language 
Lessons,"  "Moral  Training,"  and  especially,  in  1876, 


40  OUR    TRAVELERS    AND    WRITERS. 

thetic  Culture,"  a  theme  which,  by  her  nature  and  culture,  she 
was  preeminently  qualified  to  illustrate,  and  which  won  her 
distinguished  consideration  as  a  literary  artist. 

Without  pretension,  and  doubtless  as  a  mode  of  felicitous 
expression  of  exalted  conceptions  and  delicate  sentiments,  for 
which  plain  prose  is  inadequate  and  impotent,  she.  has  from 
time  to  time  allowed  us  a  glimpse  of  the  resources  of  the 
poetic  elements  of  her  gifted  nature,  as  beautifully  expressed 
in  a  "Prayer  in  Lent,"  "The  Vagabond's  Prayer,"  "Dawn," 
and 

THE  BROOK  IN  THE  HOLLOW. 

The  brook  in  the  hollow 

Hath  waked  from  its  sleep, 
And  under  the  rushes  doth  creep  and  creep; 

Then,  over  the  pebbles 

So  smooth  and  brown, 
Goes  merrily  dancing,  dancing  down. 

Now,  shouting  with  laughter, 

It  leaps  o'er  the  rock, 
Awaking  the  echoes  its  mirth  to  mock ; 

While  over  the  borders, 

So  rugged  and  steep, 
The  dainty  anemones  peep  and  peep. 

Then  out  of  the  shadow 

And  into  the  sun, 
All  bubbling  with  pleasure,  the  glad  waves  run ; 

Now  broader  and  deeper 

It  moves  with  ease, 
And  murmurs  of  peace  to  the  scented  breeze. 

The  dear  birds  drink 

Of  its  waters  bright ; 
The  fond  stars  sleep  on  its  breast  at  night, 

Now  quiet,  as  grieving 

The  hills  to  forsake, 
It  glides  under  lily-pads  into  the  lake. 


OUR    TRAVELERS    AND    WRITERS.  41 

Mr.  Charles  C.  Baldwin,  amid  very  active  professional 
labors,  has  found  time  and  had  the  taste  to  make  extensive 
and  valuable  researches  into  the  antiquities  of  Northern  Ohio, 
and  has  written  several  interesting  monographs  touching  the 
mysterious  mounds,  so  impressive  and  suggestive  of  the  pres- 
ence of  a  race  of  men  of  constructive  intelligence  and  great 
power  upon  our  soil  many  thousand  years  before  the  race  we 
now  call  primeval  and  indiginous ;  but  more  especially  of  the 
Indian  tribes  whose  locality  was  upon  the  borders  of  Lake 
Erie.  Not  the  least  interesting,  however,  of  Mr.  Baldwin's 
pamphlets,  written  for  the  Western  Reserve  Historical  Society, 
of  which  he  is  an  active  and  efficient  member,  we  recall  to 
mind  one  illustrated  by  a  series  of  maps,  made  by  the  French 
Jesuits,  showing  the  locality  of  the  several  tribes  of  Indians, 
river  system,  portages,  etc.,  and  demonstrating  the  wonderful 
familiarity  of  the  French  voyayeurs,  and  the  government  of 
France,  with  the  whole  of  our  territory,  from  the  Lake  to  the 
Beau  reviere,  nearly  three  hundred  years  ago. 

Among  our  professional  journalists  there  are  many  gentle- 
men of  fine  abilities  and  cultivated  tastes,  who,  while  devoted 
to  daily  papers,  more  or  less  political,  which  they  assist  to 
conduct  in  a  spirited  and  creditable  manner,  have  from  time 
to  time  given  evidence  of  finer  and  more  exalted  thoughts 
than  their  daily  duties  called  them  to  express.  Of  such  we 
take  the  liberty  to  allude  to  Mr.  J.  H.  Kennedjr,  of  the  Cleve- 
land Herald,  whose  ability  and  industry  in  the  line  of  journal- 
istic service  has  been  noted,  and  whose  amenities  have  ever 
prompted  him  to  be  just,  and  even  pleasantly  generous,  when 
he  might  have  been  severe.  He  has  in  the  last  few  years 
scattered  along  quietly,  and  often  anonymously,  in  the  col- 
umns of  his  paper,  little  gems  of  thought  clothed  with  such 
delicate  expression  as  to  be  worthy  of  a  less  ephemeral  pub- 
lication. From  among  many  of  which  we  are  conscious,  we 
especially  remark  the  following  sad  and  tender  poetic  ex- 


42  OUR    TRAVELERS    AND    WRITERS. 

pressions,  which  we  submit  as  evidence  in  justification  of 
.these  remarks  : 

NEAR  THE  SHADOW. 

Unshaken  in  my  faith  I  said,  "  O  friend, 
The  darkest  nights  of  grief  soon  pass.     You  bend 
Beneath  the  burden  now,  but  light  will  come  !" 
I  meant  no  hurt ;  and  could  not  read  the  dumb 
Unanswering  look  that  on  his  face  lay  dead — 
Nor  even  guess  that  meaning  left  unread. 

Not  then.     But  later — there  beside  the  nest 
Wherein  my  little  one  reposed — the  rest 
Of  untried  faith  was  broken  up  and  blurred. 
I  read  the  bitter  meaning  then.     I  heard 
The  mocking  lightness  in  my  former  speech ; 
And  learned  that  I,  untaught,  could  never  teach 
The  broken  soul  in  depths  bevond  my  reach. 

For  then  there  came  an  inner  voice  that  cried, 
•"O  shallow  sympathy  !  O  untouched  pride, 
That  never  mourned  a  loss;  that  never  beat 
In  helpless  stress  against  the  storm  !  O  feet, 
That  never  stood  upon  a  dim-lit  shore, 
Where  tiny  barks  set  sail  to  land  no  more ! 
•O  parent  soul,  that  never  felt  a  loss, 
How  little  reck  ye  of  your  brother's  cross!" 

I  measured,  then,  some  portion  of  the  gloom 
That  filled  his  soul.     I  sought  the  darkened  room 
"Wherein  the  treasure  he  had  lost  was  laid 
Beneath  a  cross  of  roses.     "I  have  made 
A  closer  call  on  death  !"  I  said,  "  have  met 
His  prophet  messenger,  through  paths  that  yet 
His  presence  does  not  darken.     There  is  space 
In  that  for  sympathy  !" 

And  by  the  face 

That  met  my  look — through  coming  tears  to  each — ' 
I  read,  in  words  more  eloquent  than  speecli : 
~tlThe  soul  by  sorrow  taught,  alone  can  teach  /" 


OUR    TRAVELERS    AND    WRITERS.  43 

"  Glances  on  the  Wing  at  Foreign  Lands,"  by  Rev.  James 
JVL  Hoyt,  in  1871,  is  an  interesting  little  volume  that  did  not 
need  the  prefatory  apology  of  being  written  for  his  own  chil- 
dren and  published  by  friends.  The  instinctive  modesty  and 
.good  sense  of  the  gentleman  is  too  well  appreciated  to  require 
an  excuse  for  imparting  any  information  he  might  acquire  in 
.a  few  months  of  recreation  and  observation  in  foreign  lands. 
His  is  a  most  cheerful  little  book,  and  the  author  possesses  in 
his  nature  and  culture  that  happ}T  combination  of  legal  and 
clerical  discipline  and  taste  which  selects  and  discourses  upon 
living  realities  and  the  subjects  which  are  uppermost  in  the 
minds  of  readers  of  ancient  and  modern  classical  literature 
and  history.  England,  Scotland  and  Ireland,  France,  Ger- 
many and  Switzerland  were  the  lands  of  which  he  took  a  bird's- 
eye  view  on  speed}7"  intellectual  wings.  The  beauty  of  the 
cultivated  landscape  of.  the  old  world  was  easy  to  take  in,  and 
•comprehended  at  a  glance  ;  but  his  observations,  often  minute 
and  specific,  of  museun\s  of  antiquities,  of  Druidical  or  Phoe- 
nician and  Roman  remains  in  temple,  tower  or  cromlech,  and 
of  the  houses  remaining,  where  once  lived,  and  the  graves  and 
monuments  that  mark  the  resting  place  of  the  historic  dead, 
with  which  even  intelligent  readers  are  but  dimty  familiar, 
possess  a  fascinating  interest  for  the  reality  which  he  has 
thrown  around  them  by  his  personal  visit  to  each.  What 
startling  reality  to  be  told  that  the  house  of  Milton,  in  which 
he  wrote  Paradise  Lost,  has  been  condemned,  appropriated 
and  removed,  to  make  way  for  the  track  of  the  Northern 
Railway!  He  has  made  the  graves  of  Milton,  Defoe,  and  the 
many  renowned  tenants  of  Bunhill  Fields  as  familiar  as  the 
tombs  of  distinguished  dead  in  our  own  cemeteries;  and  the 
grave  of  Knox  and  the  monuments  of  Scott  and  Chalmers 
fresh  in  our  memories,  and  by  his  visit  thereto,  has  awakened 
a  renewed  interest  in  the  ancient  Judicial  Hall  where  non-suits, 
;and  defaults,  and  decrees  of  robbed  chancellors  were  entered  by 
the  same  hand  that  delighted  a  generation  in  The  Lady  of  the 


44  OUR    TRAVELERS    AND    WRITERS. 

Lake.  Mr.  Ho}Tt  has  given  new  impressions  and  more  vivid 
realities  of  York,  the  ancient  Emboracum,  once  a  shrine  of 
Serapis,  before  Christian  basilica,  or  church;  illustrious  as 
the  birth-place  of  Constantine,  and  the  spot  from  which  he 
started  on  that  wonderful  career  which  changed  the  face  of 
the  world — which  gave  a  pontiff  to  Rome  in  the  person  of 
Adrian  IV.,  and  where  peasants  of  adjacent  villages  show  to- 
day on  cottage  floors  mosaic  pavements  that  bear  witness  to 
the  luxury  and  refinement  of  the  age  of  Roman  dominion 
which  passed  awa}*  in  the  wreck  of  Isurium.  The  pinions  of 
our  tourist  were  happily  folded  on  the  dome  of  London's  St. 
Paul  long  enough  to  contemplate  the  genius  of  Sir  Christo- 
pher Wren  and  the  glories  of  the  great  Church  of  the  primate 
of  England,  and  a  thousand  years  of  pontifical  supremacy.  It 
would  be  interesting  to  know,  but  about  which  our  hasty 
traveler  is  silent,  if  in  addition  thereto  he  contemplated  that 
still  remoter  age  when  the  Phoenician  and  the  Greek  were 
settled  on  the  banks  of  the  Thames,  and  a  temple  of  Diana 
stood  upon  the  identical  ground  on  which  was  built  the  sec- 
ond Christian  Church,  and  above  which  now  stands  the  dome 
and  towers  of  the  most  renowned  Church  of  modern  Europe. 
Mr.  Hoyt  has  demonstrated,  even  in  his  too  brief  notes,  that 
he  is  not  only  a  genial  and  happy  traveler,  but  that  he  has 
that  cultured  liberality  which  enables  him  to  read  with  ex- 
pressed pleasure  Tyndall's  Recreations  in  the  Alps,  subject 
only  to  that  legitimate  and  candid  criticism,  becoming  a  cleri- 
cal gentleman,  for  the  author's  failure  to  recognize  in  the 
Hebrew  Jehovah  his  own  conception  of  the  Author  of  the 
Universe. 

Some  years  since  Mrs.  A.  B.  Halliwell,  a  musical  artist 
endeared  to  Clevelanders  for  her  professional  charities, 
made  a  visit  to  the  old  world,  taking  the  high  northern  route, 
and  entering  Scotland  by  the  Clyde.  She  visited  Edinburgh, 
the  lakes  and  mountains,  made  famous  by  Scott's  Lady  of 
the  Lake,  and  the  homes  of  the  English  poets,  London, 


OUR    TRAVELERS    AND    WRITERS.  45 

Manchester  and  York ;  Ireland  and  the  Lakes  of  Killarney, 
and  ultimately  Paris  ;  concerning  all  of  which  she  wrote 
.admirable  letters  to  the  Cleveland  Herald.  She  gave  an 
impressive  description  of  the  Giant's  Causeway,  as  also  of 
York  and  its  great  cathedral.  She  was  in  London,  and 
.attended  the  concerts  of  all  the  famous  artists  of  the  world, 
when  they  met  there  in  musical  rivalry  in  the  spring  and 
early  summer  of  1872,  each  receiving  in  turn  the  applause  of 
the  elite  of  the  high  social  and  musical  society  of  the  metrop- 
olis—  Patti,  Nilsson,  Lucca,  Parepa  Rosa,  Miramon,  Albani ; 
;Senors  Stalo,  Nicholini,  Sims  Reeves  and  others,  each  of 
whom  in  turn  seemed  to  enjo}'  a  triumph  —  the  divine 
face,  form  and  voice  of  Patti,  however,  winning  the  popular 
verdict,  she  was  crowned  Queen  of  Song. 

Mr.  Hiram  Garretson,  long  devoted  to  mercantile  affairs 
and  banking,  sought  relief  from  overwork  and  an  impaired 
constitution  in  European  travel,  and  having  been  appointed 
United  States  Commissioner  to  the  World's  Fair  at  Vienna, 
he  entered  upon  the  delicate  but  arduous  duties  of  the  posi- 
tion, and  by  his  superior  business  capacity,  tact  and  address, 
brought  order  out  of  the  confusion  into  which  the  American 
exhibitors  had  been  thrown  by  unforeseen  contingencies,  and 
the  lack  of  space  and  accommodations  provided  by  the  Austrian 
government.  His  personal  no  less  than  his  official  presence 
redounded  largely  to  the  ultimate  success  of  the  American 
department.  He  received  the  grateful  acknowledgment  of 
Americans,  and  won  the  admiration  of  Austrian  officials,  the 
exhibitors  of  other  countries,  and  foreigners  general^.  He 
remained  until  the  close  of  the  exposition,  when  he  came 
home,  but  did  not  long  survive  his  return. 

Colonel  Charles  Whittlesey  has  been  a  too  voluminous 
writer  to  even  name  his  books,  pamphlets  or  themes.  It  is 
enough  to  say  that  nature  constituted  him  a  naturalist,  geol- 
ogist, antiquarian,  historian,  and  a  practical  man  in  the  every 
•day  affairs  of  life.  He  has  rendered  in  his  long  and  active 


46  OUR    TRAVELERS    AND    WRITERS. 

life  great  public  service,  and  has  been  largely  instrumental  im 
conferring  commercial  wealth  and  prosperity  upon  the  city 
by  his  early  scientific  and  geological  discoveries  and  develop- 
ments —  preeminently  in  the  coal  fields  of  Ohio,  and  in  the 
copper  and  iron  regions  of  Lake  Superior.  Meteorology  r 
variations  of  lake  levels,  tidal  waves  and  oscillations  have 
had  his  learned  consideration.  His  researches  and  writings 
touching  the  prehistoric  people  of  America,  and  especially  or 
Ohio,  have  resulted  not  only  in  making  the  mound  builder 
a  reality,  but  almost  in  giving  him  a  literature.  The  last 
blessing  which  the  great  scientist  can  confer  upon  his  appre- 
ciative friends  and  the  generations  to  come,  will  lie  in  the 
direction  of  proper  provisions  for  the  gathering  together  of 
all  his  unedited  notes  and  writings  for  publication,  complete 
and  in  more  accessible  form. 

Much  is  said  and  written  about  workingmen,  and  but  little 
about  workingwomen,  }-et  we  apprehend  that  if  the  latter 
were  marshalled  in  companies,  regiments  and  brigades,  the 
workingmen  would  find  themselves  matched,  not  only  upon 
many  fields  of  general  industoy,  but  by  an  invincible  army 
upon  the  world's  broad  field  of  literary  industry  and  intellec- 
tual labor.  The  silence  which  prevails  touching  woman's 
work,  possibly  comes  of  the  same  spirit  which  possessed  the 
humble  Hibernian  politician,  to  whom  was  exhibited  a  beau- 
tiful and  highly  polished  piece  of  mechanism,  and  was  told 
that  it  would  perform  the  labor  of  many  men,  and  do  more 

perfect  work,  but  whose  only  expressed  gratification  was 

"It  can't  vote."  Sarah  K.  Bolton  is  one  of  the  many  women 
who  works  with  the  constant  and  untiring  devotion  of  a  bird 
gathering  material  for  its  nest.  The  Catherine  Beecher 
school  of  Hartford,  the  historical  Charter  Oak,  the  broad 
Connecticut  and  the  beautiful  vale  of  the  Farmington,  Talcott 
mountain  and  its  ancient  tower,  and  the  poetic  halo  around 
the  home  of  Lydia  H.  Sigourney,  inspired  her  to  the  author- 
ship of  a  volume  of  poems,  published  by  the  Appleton'sr 


OUR    TRAVELERS    AND    WRITERS.  47" 

before  she  was  sixteen  years  old.  Untiring  in  her  activity, 
and  constant  in  her  devotion  to  the  moral  welfare  of  society, 
she  has  been  the  efficient  secretary  of  the  Woman's  Christian 
Association,  and  a  writer  of  monographs  upon  temperance 
and  kindred  subjects,  and  for  three  years  was  one  of  the 
editors  of  the  Congregationalist  of  Boston,  a  journal  of  wide 
circulation  and  great  influence.  She  visited  Europe  in  1878, 
and  again  in  1881,  traveling  through  Great  Britain,  Ireland, 
France,  Italy,  Switzerland,  Austria  and  Germany — writing 
the  while  for  Boston  and  New  York  magazines,  and  leading 
journals  East  and  West.  She  is  now  preparing  two  volumes 
for  the  press.  Mrs.  Bolton  is  a  cheerful  lady  who  always 
faces  the  sunshine  of  life,  and  whose  philosophic  maxim  is, 
that  the  desire  and  ability  to  do  any  ennobling  work  in  life 
confers  the  right  upon  man  and  woman  alike. 

For  literary  and  social  industry  few,  if  any,  surpass  Mrs. 
W.  A.  Ingham.  A  woman  of  liberal  culture,  generous  spirit, 
and  withal  practical  business  talent,  she  was  the  first  lady  to 
read  an  essay  before  a  Cleveland  public  audience,  being  the 
occasion  of  the  organization  of  the  Woman's  Foreign  Mission- 
ary Society  of  the  M.  E.  Church,  in  1870.-  Temperance  work, 
friendliness  to  the  lowly,  and  the  happiness  of  children  are 
among  her  labors  and  delights,  of  which  her  neat  and  tidy 
"Pearl  Street  Inn,"  and  her  thousand  constituents  abundant- 
ly and  happily  testify.  Mrs.  Ingham  has  travelled  with  her 
husband  quite  extensively  in  Europe,  and  her  letters  from 
across  the  water,  as  also  from  Florida,  were  admirable. 
Over  the  nom  de  plume  of  "Anne  Hathaway"  she  is  illus- 
trating, in  a  series  of  very  readable  and  instructive  papers, 
"Woman's  Work  in  Cleveland  and  Northern  Ohio,"  con- 
tributed to  the  Cleveland  Leader.  Mrs.  Sadie  W.  Ingham  is 
a  woman  of  culture  —  has  a  classical  education,  and  is  noted 
for  her  happy  facility  in  definite  and  clearly  expressed 
thought.  Her  essay  entitled,  "Our  Girls,"  read  before  the 
International  Convention  of  Woman's  Christian  Associations.. 


48  OUR    TRAVELERS    AND    WRITERS. 

at  St.  Louis,  in  1881,  won  for  her  many  pleasant  acquaintan- 
ces, ^.and  an  extended  fame.  She  is  the  efficient  and  beloved 
secretary  of  the  Woman's  Christian  Association  of  Cleveland, 
and  the  editor  of  its  paper,  "  The  Earnest  Worker."  Miss 
Emma  Janes  has  endeared  her  name  to  many,  other  than  her 
personal  acquaintances,  by  her  entertaining  and  charming 
letters  from  California,  published  in  the  Cleveland  Herald. 
.She  is  the  Washington  Correspondent  for  leading  journals  in 
New  York  and  California. 

Mr.  Charles  E.  Bolton,  who  graduated  at  Amherst  College 
.and  came  to  Cleveland  in  1865,  while  among  the  youngest  and 
latest  of  our  travelers  and  writers,  has  excelled  all  his  pre- 
decessors and  cotemporaries  in  having  crossed  the  Atlantic 
some  eight  or  ten  t'imes.  Not  all,  however,  for  mere  pleasure, 
but  in  the  interests  of  a  great  manufacturing  establishment,  of 
which  he  is  the  manifest  life,  a  corporation  with  a  soul,  and 
the  wondrous  packing  machine  that  does  everything  that  a 
merchant,  grocer  or  manufacturer  with  a  retinue  of  clerks 
and  a  whole  platoon  of  employes  can  do,  but  talk  and  vote, 
.and  which  will  pack  a  whole  barrel  of  ground  coffee,  or  any 
similar  product  in  shapely  pound  packages  in  the  twinkling 
of  an  eye,  as  by  the  fiat  of  an  intelligence  superior  to  man. 
This  famous  machine,  of  which  he  is  largely  the  inventor, 
at  least  of  many  of  its  most  important  parts  and 
improvements,  has  called  him  to  visit  all  parts  of  Europe, 
including  Russia  and  Turke}\  He  was  at  the  Paris  ex- 
position in  1878,  and  the  Electrical  exposition  there  in 
1881,  besides  making  the  general  tour  of  the  continent  with 
his  wife  and  manly  son,  Master  Charlie  Bolton,  in  1878. 
Mr.  Bolton  has  been  a  ver}-  creditable  representative  of 
Cleveland  abroad,  having  by  reason  of  his  bright  intelligence 
and  admirable  address  access  to  good  society  and  all  reform- 
ator}^  associations  and  institutions  —  could  speak  at  Dr.  New- 
man Hall's  church,  at  the  great  gatherings  in  the  halls  of 
London  and  Birmingham  —  hold  parle}T  with  and  perplex 


OUR    TRAVELERS    AND    AVRITERS.  49 

with  questions  the  consummate  platform  controversialist 
and  orator  Bradlaugh,  and  win  the  applause  of  an  English 
audience  on  their  proverbial  sentiment  of  justice  and  fair 
pUry  in  public  discussions.  He  has  also  been  a  prolific 
and  valuable  correspondent  and  writer  for  American  jour- 
nals and  magazines.  Mr.  Bolton's  last  social  achievement 
is  recognized  and  acknowledged  in  the  conception,  organiza- 
tion and  triumphant  success  of  the  Cleveland  Educational 
Bureau. 

Mr.  George  W.  Howe  and  S.  T.  Everett  have  each  found 
pleasure  and  won  financial  triumphs  of  late  }'ears  among  the 
financiers  and  business  men  of  London,  and  profited  in  health 
and  spirit  by  visits  to  Paris  and  elsewhere  in  the  old  world. 
George  F.  Marshall  long  since  made  the  tour  of  England, 
German}*  and  France  —  the  results  of  his  observations  he 
.communicated  in  a  free  and  lively,  and  often  in  a  pleasantly 
facetious  style  to  home  journals.  Mr.  Marshall  in  former 
years  was  a  prolific  magazine  writer,  notably  for  the  old 
"Knickerbocker,"  and  has  written  several  pamphlets  and 
monographs  upon  historical  and  other  subjects.  A  few  years 
since  he  published  a  very  neat  and  attractive  little  volume  of 
Original  Prayers,  adapted  to  special  occasions  and  emergen- 
cies in  life  —  admirably  composed  and  forcibly  expressed 
petitions  —  but  their  availabilit}T  and  use,  we  fear,  were 
•sadly  and  lamentably  restricted,  owing  solely  to  the 
•circumstance  that  the  author,  very  singularly,  secured 
a  copyright  of  his  work.  J.  W.  Walton  has  been  a 
thoughtful  observer  and  writer  upon  English  local  history, 
scenery  and  institutions.  Mr.  J.  M.  Curtiss  has  traveled 
with  intelligent  appreciation  and  an  eye  to  the  beauty  of 
landscape,  in  England,  Scotland,  Switzerland  and  France,  the 
beneficial  results  of  which  he  has  eminently  illustrated  in  the 
^selection  and  adornment  of  'Riverside,  and  of  which  the 
municipality  has  availed  in  his  appointment  as  Park  Com- 
missioner. John  Erwin  and  Arthur  Hughes,  venerable  gen- 


50  OUR    TRAVELERS    AND    WRITERS. 

tlemen  of  leisure  and  fortune,  had  the  commendable  curiosity 
and  practical  good  sense  to  add  Rome,  Egypt,  Palestine,, 
Greece  and  Russia  to  the  list  of  countries  visited  by  them. 
Mr.  M.  C.  Younglove  some  years  since  extended  his  travels 
to  Rome  and  subsequently  to  Egypt,  where  he  was  called  to 
mourn  the  death  of  his  son  under  the  shadow  of  the  great 
pyramid.  Richard  C.  Parsons  has  several  times  visited 
Europe,  and  happily  has  been  inspired  to  dwell  upon  Rome,, 
her  history,  her  monuments  and  her  ruins,  of  which,  in  his. 
letters  thence,  and  later  in  public  addresses,  he  has  given 
us  pleasant  and  instructive  comments.  Mr.  Edwin  Cowles, 
while  United  States  Commissioner  to  the  Paris  exposition, 
contributed  to  his  journal  a  series  of  papers,  the  results  of 
his  observations,  careful  and  critical,  of  exceeding  interest  to 
its  readers,  touching  that  renowned  enterprise,  as  also  much 
relating  to  the  famous  battle  ground  on  the  plains  of  Bel- 
gium, and  the  institutions,  peoples,  and  the  social  status  and 
industrial  and  commercial  condition  and  advancement  of 
modern  Europe.  Mr.  John  Shelley  has  so  often  broken  the 
monotony  of  his  elegant  ease  and  leisure,  and  visited  Eng- 
land and  the  continent,  that  it  would  seem  that  the  Atlantic 
is  to  him  but  a  fair  sized  navigable  stream  of  water  running 
from  pole  to  pole,  and  a  Cunarder  but  a  commodious  and 
comfortable  ferry-boat  by  which  to  cross  it.  Ex-Mayor 
Payne  sought  health  in  the  waters  of  Baden-Baden  and 
Bohemia,  and  in  the  breezes  of  Switzerland,  and  the  cheerful- 
ness of  his  spirits  was  restored  only  to  be  saddened  in  the 
death  of  a  cherished  brother  who  had  sought  with  him  the- 
same  boon,  but  found  it  not. 

Mr.  and  Mrs.  W.  J.  Gordon  have  spent  much  time  in 
Europe  of  late  j^ears,  and  where,  in  Belgium,  their  accom- 
plished daughter,  the  late  Madame  la  Vicomtesse  Alphonse 
Vilain  XIV.,  married,  lived  and  died,  profoundly  mourned  by 
husband  and  parents,  and  lamented  by  innumerable  Ameri- 
can friends  who  call  her  to  memory  for  her  mental  superior!- 


OUR    TRAVELERS    AND    WRITERS.  51 

ty,  and  the  beauty  and  grace  of  her  childhood  and  maiden 
years. 

The  residence  of  Miss  Florence  Wyman  in  England  for  a 
few  years  past  has  been  made  agreeably  manifest  through  the 
columns  of  our  public  journals,  in  many  contributions,  vigor- 
ous, spirited  and  instructive,  covering  a  variety  of  historical, 
literary  and  social  topics.  The  latest  contribution  to  litera- 
ture by  a  Clevelander,  of  which  we  are  advised,  is  the  volume 
of  Miss  Cadwell,  daughter  of  Judge  Darius  Cadwell,  entitled 
"Number  Seventeen,"  a  romance  of  the  lakes,  which  is  com- 
mended highly  by  those  who  have  had  the  pleasure  of  its 
perusal.  It  certainly  has  won  for  her  respectful  consideration 
as  a  lady  of  literary  accomplishments. 

Mr.  H.  B.  Payne,  Judge  Rufus  P.  Ranney,  Judge  Daniel  R. 
Tilden,  and  Mr.  George  Willey,  avoiding  the  deep  and  rolling 
waters  of  the  Atlantic  and  its  towering  and  frowning  icebergs, 
have  ranged  the  interior  of  the  Continent  for  pleasant  recrea- 
tion and  vivifying  airs,  from  the  valley  of  the  Saskatchawan 
and  the  waters  of  the  Winnipeg  in  the  Dominion  of  Canada 
to  the  City  of  Mexico ;  but  those  who  would  learn  something 
of  their  pleasures  and  delights  must  seek  therefor  in  a  per- 
sonal interview,  and  find  their  reward  in  the  charm  of  the 
conversation  and  narrative  of  each. 

A  trip  to  Europe  has  become  no  longer  a  novelt}'.  The 
business  man  is  missed  for  a  few  weeks,  and  when  again  we 
meet  him  on  the  street  we  are  not  surprised  to  learn  from 
him  that,  instead  of  having  been  indulging  in  the  surf  at  New- 
port or  Cape  May,  he  is  just  in  by  the  last  steamer  from 
Liverpool.  Judges  and  lawyers  are  now  wont  to  utilize  their 
vacation  in  a  carpet-bag  run  from  John  O'Groat's  House  to 
Land's-end,  or  by  a  trip  up  the  Rhine  and  down  the  Danube, 
and  are  back  in  season  for  the  next  term  of  court.  Verily, 
the  world  of  mankind  is  on  the  wing,  and  the  girdle  of  the 
electric  wizard  goes  the  circuit  of  the  earth  in  forty 
minutes. 


52  WEBSTER'S  SPELLING-BOOK  UNCOVERED. 


WEBSTER'S  SPELLING-BOOK  "UNCOVERED." 


~\  \  7E  have  read  with  exceeding  interest  the  account  of  the 
*  *  meeting  of  the  old  pioneers  in  Summit  count}'.  Ohio, 
and  the  Edgerton  famil}'  reunion  in  Ro3~alton.  in  1873.  Such 
.associations  and  reunions  touch  a  sympathetic  chord  in  the 
hearts  of  thousands  far  beyond  the  locality  where  they  trans- 
pire. There  is  a  sublimity  in  the  thought  of  a  venerable  band 
of  fathers  and  mothers,  standing  upon  the  verge  of  the  grnve. 
and  holding  up  in  their  hands  the  ancient  household  gods,  the 
treasures  and  keepsakes  of  their  long  and  eventful  journey  of 
life,  to  the  wonder,  admiration  and  love  of  their  children  and 
friends,  and  waving,  as  it  were,  a  kind  and  cheerful  farewell 
to  three  generations  behind  them.  Long  may  the  children  of 
the  West  hold  in  sacred  remembrance  and  veneration  the  old 
pioneers  ! 

But  it  was  in  the  following  paragraph  that  the  writer  here- 
of found  special  delight  in  the  discovery  there  developed,  not 
failing  to  appreciate  the  humorous  reflections  and  slight  sar- 
casm of  the  reporter : 

"We  looked  into  Xoah  Webster's  spelling-book,  forty-six 
years  old,  and  pitied  the  boy  in  the  apple  tree,  who  resisted 
grass  and  kind  words,  and  wondered  if  he  grew  to  manhood 
and  still  holds  a  high  place,  from  which  he  must  needs  be 
pelted  with  stones  before  he  will  come  down  from  his  stealing 
place." 

We  have  ceased  to  be  surprised  at  modern  discoveries. 
Forty  years  ago  La}'ard  uncovered  Nineveh  and  astonished 
the  world.  The  tablets  of  the  royal  library  of  Assyria  have 
been  found  and  translated.  The  tombs  of  Egypt  long  since 


WEBSTER'S  SPELLING-BOOK  UNCOVERED.  53 

gave  back  the  Book  of  the  Dead.  And  now  the  book  of  Noah 
has  been  uncovered  in  the  summit  of  Ohio's  backbone  ;  and 
Cadmus  has  come  again  ! 

The  old  spelling-book  now  brought  to  light  seems  to  be  an 
edition  of  1827.  The  one  in  which  the  handsome  blonde 
school  mistress,  in  the  pink  dress,  first  pointed  out  to .  the 
writer,  with  her  scissors  suspended  from  her  zone  by  a  steel 
chain,  the  wonderful  twenty-six  letters,  was  at  least  three 
years  older.  Although  we  have  not  seen  it  for  more  than  forty 
years,  its  pages  and  lessons  are  quite  vivid  in  memory.  The 
well  trodden  path  from  Ab  to  monosyllables,  which  the  big 
bo}'  persisted  in  calling  ''Molly  Sinables,"  is  not  yet  quite 
grassed  over.  There  was  a  frontispiece  in  the  early  edition,  a 
Grecian  temple  upon  a  lofty  acropolis,  with  "  Knowledge  " 
inscribed  upon  a  broad  frieze  above  its  Doric  columns,  and 
surmounted  by  a  dome  arid  spire,  upon  which  was  a  vane, 
with  the  legend  "  Fame  ;  "  signif}Ting,  perhaps,  that  knowledge 
is  substantial,  but  that  fame  has  something  of  the  fickleness 
of  the  wind.  A  flight  of  steps  led  to  the  temple,  up  which  a 
youth  was  going  with  a  book  in  hand  (the  veritable  spelling- 
book,  we  thought),  to  recite,  no  doubt,  the  "Abbrevations  "  A. 
B.  ;  LL.  D.  ;  I.  H.  S.,  Jesu  Homine  Salvator.  The  first  lesson 
droned  out  by  little  bo}Ts  and  girls  was,  "  No-man-may-put- 
off-the-law-of-God."  . 

It  was  a  proud  da}'  with  the  little  class  when  they  got  over 
to  "  Baker,"  which  was  a  kind  of  haven  where  they  cast 
anchor  for  a  while  and  looked  back  over  the  voyage,  turned 
over  a  few  leaves  ahead  to  take  a  peep  at  the  lessons  yet  to 
come,  containing  the  hard  words  that  had  such  an  awful  lot 
of  "  sinables  "  in  them.  It  is  hardly  to  be  doubted  that  the 
Hon.  Sidney  Edgerton  felt  more  pride  in  getting  to  "  Baker  " 
than  to  the  governorship  of  a  Territory.  There  was  an 
audible  smile  when  the  smallest  boy  read  how  the  virtue  in 
the  stones  made  the  }Toung  saucebox  hasten  down  from  the 
tree  and  beg  the  old  man's  puddin'  !  So  cool  a  demand  for 


54  WEBSTER'S  SPELLING-BOOK  UNCOVERED. 

pudding,  under  the  circumstances,  had  no  precedent,  but  it 
evinced  in  the  lad  remarkable  proclivities  to  statesmanship. 
Doubtless  the  milkmaid  still  laments  her  catastrophe,  and 
sighs  over  disappointed  hopes  for  the  green  dress.  We  con- 
fess to  some  lingering  of  sympathy  for  her,  and  wish  she  had 
ou\j  waited  a  few  days  for  the  chickens  to  hatch  before  she 
counted  them.  The  fox  in  the  brambles  ma}'  yet  be  tor- 
mented with  flies. 

The  law}*er  and  farmer  are  doubtless  in  consultation  as 
they  were  forty-eight  years  ago.  It  would  be  interesting  to 
know  who  was  the  artist  that  made  those  illustrations. 
Perhaps  it  was  the  grandfather  of  Nast.  Whoever  he  ma}r 
have  been,  we  think  he  found  the  original  of  his  stately  old 
lawyer,  with  ruffled  shirt,  short  breeches  and  great  shoe  buck- 
les, sitting  erectly  in  his  high  back  office  chair,  either  in  the 
person  of  Zephania  Swift,  or  David  Dagget,  Connecticut's  two 
great  lawyers  of  the  old  school,  though  neither  of  them  had 
many  "If 's  and  If 's"  or  reservations  in  their  opinions.  There 
was  one  more  picture,  the  title,  story,  or  "  moral "  of  which 
cannot  now  be  recalled  ;  but  it  represented  a  man  "  up  a  tree," 
another  prostrate  with  his  face  to  the  ground,  pretending  to 
be  dead,  and  a  bear  was  snuffing  at  his  head  to  ascertain  if  so 
be  he  was.  Probably  one  of  ^Esop's  fables. 

The  last  reading  lesson  was  a  few  verses  of  the  grand  old 
Hebrew  injunction — "  Remember  now  thy  Creator  in  the  days 
of  thy  youth,  while  the  evil  days  come  not,  nor  the  years  draw 
nigh,  when  thou  shalt  say,  I  have  no  pleasure  in  them."  It 
is  possible  this  cop}r  of  Webster's  spelling-book  is  the  only 
one  extant,  and  it  should  be  preserved  for  the  generations  to 
come.  We  had  rather  possess  it  than  all  the  islands  of  the  sea. 
Several  years  ago  we  made  inquiry  for  it  in  the  old  school 
district,  but  it  was  not  to  be  found.  A  few  only  had  seen  it 
face  to  face.  A  new  generation  had  arisen  who  knew  not 
Webster.  We  inquired  for  the  little  blue-eyed  girl  who  kept 
hers  so  neat  and  free  from  dosf's  ears  and  thumb  marks  for 


WEBSTER'S  SPELLING-BOOK  UNCOVERED.  55 

several  summers,  thinking  surely  we  should  find  it  with  her, 
Ibut  the  answer  came — "  Dead  forty  years  !  " 

One  day  (1825),  when  the  little  class  had  got  well  into  the  long 
*words,  school  didn't  "  keep/'  There  was  a  commotion,  extra- 
ordinary,  in  the  usually  quiet  streets  of  the  pleasant  village 
of  Waterbury,  Vermont.  Coaches  and  four  and  coaches  and 
six  dashed  around  the  sign  post  in  front  of  the  village  tavern 
(there  were  no  '"hotels"  or  Chouses''  in  the  country  then,  nor 
was  it  so  large  as  Mr.  Weddell's  tavern  in  Cleveland),  and  a 
great  multitude  of  people  uttered  a  joyous  exclamation,  "Wel- 
•come,  La  Fayette  !  "  Too  young  to  realize  its  significance. 

A  few  weeks  afterward,  away  beyond  the  Potomac,  three 
thousand  mounted  men  of  Virginia  flanked  three  sides  of  the 
lawn  in  front  of  Montecello.  A  veneiable  and  infirm  man 
•came  out  the  door  with  head  uncovered,  and,  unattended, 
shuffled  along  down  the  central  walk  to  welcome  a  guest.  The 
same  moment  the  guest,  tall  and  stately,  left  his  carriage, 
-alike  unattended,  to  meet  his  host.  Upon  their  near  approach 
in  the  center  of  that  hollow  square  the  first  with  voice  tremu- 
lous with  emotion  exclaimed,  "Ah,  La  Fayette  !  "  The  other 
responded,  "Ah,  Jefferson  ! "  And  the  statesman  and  the 
soldier  rushed  into  each  other's  embrace  and  cried  like  chil- 
dren— and  Montecello  rang  with  applause. 

The  next  year  occurred  the  most  wonderful  coincidence  in 
liistory,  in  the  death  of  John  Adams  and  Thomas  Jefferson, 
two  ex-Presidents,  the  joint  authors  of  the  Declaration  of 
Independence,  and,  save  Washington,  the  foremost  names  in 
the  annals  of  America,  on  the  Fourth  of  July,  1826,  just  fifty 
years  from  the  date  of  that  immortal  paper. 

Then  Ezra  Butler,  of  Waterbury,  farmer,  Baptist  minister, 
.and  statesman,  was  Governor  of  Vermont.  Governor  Paul 
Dillingham  was  then  a  handsome  young  lawyer,  possessed 
of  forensic  abilities  of  a  high  order,  whose  eye  is  not  yet 
dimmed,  nor  his  natural  force  abated,  nor  has  eighty  years 
whitened  a  lock  of  his  raven  hair.  Henry  F.  Janes,  dark, 


56  WEBSTER'S  SPELLING-BOOK  UNCOVERED. 

solemn  and  profound,  was  his  formidable  opponent,  and  the  first 
if  not  the  only  man  elected  to  Congress  on  the  issues  engendered 
b}r  the  anti-Masonic  whirlwind.  Matthew  Hale  Carpenter,  after- 
wards Mr.  Dillingham's  son-in-law,  was  then  a  lad  conning  his 
lessons  in  the  famous  spelling-book,  in  an  adjoining  town,  while- 
the  State  -he  was  destined  to  represent  in  the  United  States 
Senate  was  a  wilderness  untraversed  save  by  the  indiginous- 
Indian.  Henry  M.  Rice,  late  IT.  S.  Senator  of  Minnesota,  well 
known  to  man}'  Cleveland  gentlemen,  who  by  him  have  been 
led  to  fortunes  on  the  shores  and  islands  of  Lake  Superior,, 
was  but  a  little  later  an  accomplished  clerk  and  accountant  in 
the  principal  village  store.  Affable  and  kindly,  he  would 
compromise  with  rustic  boys  and  give  each  a  handful  of  rai- 
sins if  they  would  cease  to  pick  the  dry  codfish  or  to  purloin 
the  maple  sugar.  Col.  Jonathan  P.  Miller  had  then  just 
returned  from  Athens  and  the  isles  of  Greece,  full  of  inspira- 
tion and  Greek  fire,  while  Samuel  Prentiss,  father  of  our  Judge 
S.  B.  Prentiss,  was  Vermont's  most  distinguished  U.  S.  Semi- 
tor,  and  profound  lawyer.  Col.  L'  Evaque  (Anglicized  Le 
Vake),  the  high-spirited  Frenchman  and  sturcty  patriot,  who 
came  in  the  same  ship,  as  one  of  the  suite  of  La  Fayette,  and 
served  through  the  Revolution,  and  settled  upon  the  bounty 
land  granted  him  by  Government  in  the  adjoining  town  of 
Bolton,  which  for  many  years  he  represented  in  the  Legis- 
lature, unhappily  was  not  present  at  Waterbury  to  greet 
again  his  great  compatriot  and  leader,  having  died  just 
before  the  arrival  of  La  Fayette  ;  but  the  great  Frenchman 
did  honor  to  the  memory  of  his  countryman,  compatriot  and 
early  friend  by  calling  at  his  late  residence  at  Bolton  on  his 
way  to  Burlington,  known  for  many  years  after  as  the  "Old 
Le  Vake  Place,"  a  stage  tavern,  before  railroads,  located 
upon  a  broad  and  beautiful  meadow,  through  which  flows 
the  Winooski,  under  the  frowning  cliff  of  Ricker  mountain 
that  rears  its  almost  perpendicular  Southern  front  of  two 
thousand  feet  in  majestic  defiance  to  the  loftier  Camel's* 


WEBSTER'S  SPELLING-BOOK  UNCOVERED.  57" 

Hump  beyond  the  river.  At  Burlington  La  Fa}rette  partici- 
pated in  the  ceremonies  of  laying  the  corner-stone  of  the 
University  of  Vermont,  and  Mr.  W.  J.  Warner,  of  Cleveland, 
then  a  young  mason,  whose  craft  Mr.  Choate  once  dignified 
and  exalted,  when  he  characterized  a  mason  as  "  a  beautifier 
and  an  adorner  of  cities,"  prepared  the  foundation  and  corner- 
stone, and  with  his  own  hand  spread  the  mortar,  while  La 
Fayette  touched  the  rope  by  which  the  stone  with  its  legend' 
was  lowered  to  its  place. 

And  as  if  coincidences  would  never  cease,  two  grandsons 
of  Colonel  Le  Vake,  born,  upon  that  old  homestead,  George  J.. 
and  W.  C.  Le  Vake,  are  reputable  citizens  and  prominent 
business  men  of  Cleveland,  inheritors  of  the  patriotic  spirit, 
and  who  preserve  manj-  of  the  old  legends  and  stories  related 
of  their  distinguished  grandfather.  Four  sons  of  Col.  Le  Vake- 
were  officers  in  the  war  of  1812 — one  was  upon  General  Scott's 
staff,  and  one  subsequently  lost  his  life  in  the  Mexican  war.  A 
more  remarkable  coincidence  still,  connecting  Cleveland  withr 
the  historic  past,  and  especially  with  the  visit  of  La  Faj'ette 
in  1825,  is  the  fact  that  his  private  coach,  made  in  Paris, 
brought  with  him  in  his  ship,  and  in  which  he  made  the  tour 
of  the  countr}T,  is  still  in  existence,  intact  and  perfect,  save 
the  bright  colors  of  its  rich  upholstery,  which  time  and  dust 
have  faded  and  dimmed.  This  coach  is  owned  by  Mr.  Clinton 
French,  of  Cleveland,  a  native  of  Barre,  Vermont,  and  a  lineal 
descendant  of  William  French,  of  Westminster,  Vermont, 
whose  blood,  with  Daniel  Houghton's,  was  the  first  shed  in 
the  Revolution,  March  13th,  1775,  to  whose  memory  and 
honor  the  State  erected  a  monument  in  1875.  Mr.  French 
is  a  devoted  collector  of  antiques,  especially  in  the  line  of 
books,  documents  and  historical  souvenirs,  and  the  coach  of 
La  Fayette  is  but  one  of  the  many  valuable  and  costl}T  treas- 
ures of  his  cabinet  of  wonders  and  curiosities.  It  is  an 
elaborately  wrought  and  highty  finished  carriage  of  the  style 
of  the  Napoleonic  period  and  of  the  first  empire.  Too  heavy 


.58  WEBSTER'S  spELLiNG-BOok  UNCOVERED. 

ibr  ordinary  service  with  a  single  pair  of  horses  —  four  horse 
power  being  requisite  for  facilit}'  of  movement  —  it  has 
•escaped  common  use,  and  consequently  it  is  in  a  good  state 
of  preservation  and  but  little  worn.  It  is  well  housed  and 
•cared  for  by  its  owner.  Retired  upon  its  historic  dignity  and 
fame,  it  never  appears  upon  the  streets  except  in  processions 
on  rare  occasions  of  national  rejoicing  or  public  sorrow. 

Cotemporaneous  with  Webster's  spelling-book  in  the 
schools  was  the  geography  of  Rev.  Jedidiah  Morse,  of  Cam- 
bridge, Mass.,  father  of  the  late  Samuel  F.  B.  Morse,  so  justly 
celebrated  in  the  annals  of  telegraphy.  It  was  afterwards 
superseded  by  that  of  Woodbridge,  which  in  time  gave  way 
to  Olney  or  Mitchell.  Too  young  to  have  knowledge  of  the 
text,  we  were  indulged  only  with  an  occasional  look  at  the 
pictures,  among  which  were  the  great  geysers  of  Iceland,  the 
salt  mines  of  Cracow,  the  volcano  in  the  sea,  and  a  glimpse 
of  the  mighty  "mountains  of  the  moon,"  away  in  those  mys- 
tic regions, 

Where  they  dive  for  alligators,  mock  the  hairy-faced  baboon, 
Worship  mighty  Mumbo  Jumbo  in  the  mountains  of  the  moon. 

One  illustration  haunted  children  for  many  years.  It  rep- 
resented scenes  in  Polynesia,  where  the  cannibal  butcher  of 
Papua  kept  his  shambles  and  dealt  out  to  his  customers, 
-according  to  their  tastes  or  social  rank,  or,  perhaps,  ability  to 
pay,  choice  steaks,  the  flesh  of  the  hapless  missionary,  or  pie 
meat  or  shanks  for  a  stew  from  the  body  of  the  unfortunate 
sailor.  Quarters  and  best  cuts  were  temptingly  displayed  on 
hooks  or  hung  up  to  dry,  "jerked,"  and  feet  and  fingers  were 
^arranged  like  pig's  feet  upon  modern  marble  counters,  and 
heads  could  be  seen  for  such  as  liked  them.  It  was  by  no 
means  a  cheerful  picture. 

It  would  have  been  cheering  to  the  heart  of  the  venerable 
^clergyman  and  geographer  could  he  have  had  a  vision  of  that 
bright  and  then  not  distant  future,  when  the  genius  of  that 


WEBSTER'S  SPELLING-BOOK  UNCOVERED.  59 

:son  should  enable  him  to  sit  in  his  library  in  New  York  and 
.hold  converse  with  every  civilized  nation  of  the  world.  But 
it  is  ordained  unto  young  men  to  see  visions  of  the  future, 
.and  unto  old  men  to  dream  dreams  of  the  past. 

It  has  been  said  that  the  last  thoughts  of  a  dying  old  man 
.are  of  his  infancy  and  the  face  of  his  mother.  Something  akin 
to  that  comes  to  one  who  has  passed  the  middle  age  of  life, 
when,  'contemplating  the  few  books  he  has  read,  he  finds  the 
Mecca  of  his  heart  still  farther  back  in  the  humble  little 
school  house,  with  all  its  cherished  associations  connected 
with  the  primary  book  of  Noah  Webster. 


60          TEA    DRINKING    AND    TALES    OF    A    GRANDMOTHER. 


TEA  DRINKING  AND  TALES  OF  A  GRANDMOTHER, 


E  one  hundredth  anniversary  of  a  historical  event 
rarely  comes  but  once  in  the  lifetime  of  an  individual, 
and  it  is  (pleasing  to  notice  that  the  ladies  of  the  Cleveland 
Dorcas  Society,  imbued  with  a  spirit  of  the  old  Revolutionary 
patriotism,  purpose  to  celebrate  the  first  centennial  of  the 
renowned  Boston  Tea  Party  of  1773. 

A  hundred  years  hence,  when  the  census  shall  credit  the- 
beautiful  city  with  a  million  of  people,  the  ladies  of  Cleve- 
land will  celebrate  the  virtues  and  heroic  devotion  of  the 
noble  men  and  women  whose  names  are  embalmed  in  the  his- 
toric record  of  the  great  Sanitar}^  Fair  of  the  Civil  War,  and 
wonder  that  their  ancestors  could  have  done  such  mighty 
works  ;  and  the  antiquarian  will  search  among  the  moss 
covered  tombstones  at  Lakeview,  Woodland  and  Riverside 
for  the  names  now  familiar  to  us,  and  find  his  reward  in 
reverent  delight  if,  happily,  he  shall  be  enabled  to  decipher 
and  slowly  spell  out  the  name  of  Mother  Rouse. 

The  writer  has  felt  a  charm  in  the  old  Revolutionary  his- 
tor}^  ever  since  when,  nearly  fifty  years  ago,  he  climbed  up  in 
a  chair,  and  took  a  look  into  his  grandmother's  tall  chest  of 
drawers.  It  contained  a  sword,  a  cocked  hat,  Washington's 
Farewell  Address  and  a  strong  smell,  not  of  tea,  but  of  pipe 
and  tobacco.  A  little  rummaging  brought  to  view  a  pair  of 
silver  knee  buckles,  which  holding  up,  we  solicited  of  the  old 
lad}'  to  know  if  we  might  have  them.  Turning  her  wrinkled 
but  handsome  face  towards  us,  she  said,  "  No ;  for  your 
grandfather  wore  them  the  first  time  he  came  to  see  me.'r 
What  he  came  to  see  her  for,  we  did  not  consider  much  then.. 


TEA    DRINKING    AND    TALES    OF    A    GRANDMOTHER.          61 

Though  not  learned  like  the  ';  Autocrat  of  the  Breakfast 
'Table/'  our  grandmother  was,  nevertheless,  a  most  popular 
*queen  of  the  tea-table.  Her  simulated  gravity  and  graceful 
manipulations,  when  she  would  "turn  up  a  cup  "  and  delight 
a  bevy  of  marriageable  young  ladies  concerning  their  "  pros- 
pects/' were  admirable  at  the  age  of  eighty  years.  Her  tea- 
table  discourses  were  wont  to  be  of  the  events  of  which 
Boston  was  the  early  theatre  ;  the  massacre  ;  the  destruction 
of  the  tea  ;  the  stirring  speeches  in  u  town  meeting  ; "  the 
watchwords,  and  the  "  alarum  "  guns  ;  the  flight  of  the  royal 
Governor  Gage  and  the  sale  of  his  furniture  and  plate 
(pewter)  ;  the  resolution  of  the  women  to  sacrifice  their  lives 
by  dispensing  with  the  luxury  of  tea;  Lexington,  Concord, 
Bunker  Hill ;  the  political  animosities  of  Whigs  and  Tories  of 
Boston  and  the  provincial  towns  ;  the  return  to  England  of 
-such  royalists  as  were  able,  and  the  sullen  acceptance  of  the 
situation  by  others  ;  and  the  thousand  other  incidents  that 
impress  the  mind  of  the  cotemporary,  and  which  we  so 
much  wish  to  learn,  but  about  which  subsequently  written 
history  is  silent. 

She  dispensed  on  rare  occasions  delicious  bits  of  gossip, 
but  only  in  confidence  fifty  }-ears  after  the  war,  and  only  to 
discreet  ladies  who  would  not  repeat  it,  about  the  "  sacrifices  " 
made  by  the  women  as  a  war  measure,  in  abstaining  from  tea. 
Living  only  a  few  hours'  ride  from  Boston  with  an  aunt,  whose 
husband  was  a  Puritan  deacon  and  captain  of  the  "minute 
men"  in  his  town,  and  whose  square  farm  house  was  a  center 
for  military  news  and  movements,  she  knew  all  the  signs  and 
signals  of  the  patriots,  heard  and  saw  much  and  lived  in  con- 
stant expectation  of  the  signal  guns.  In  the  spring  of  1775 
some  Boston  ladies  of  "  quality  "  paid  Captain  Joselyn  and 
his  wife  a  visit.  The}^  wore  "  hoops  "  of  great  diameter,  and 
elaborately  puffed  hair  that  would  have  delighted  Madame 
Pompadour.  The  dinner  table  was  laid  with  the  service  of 
pewter  plate  which  Captain  Joselyn  had  purchased  at  the 


62         TEA    DRINKING   AND    TALES    OF    A    GRANDMOTHER. 

sale  of  Governor  Gage's  household  effects,  a  portion  of  whiclu 
was  the  outfit  of  the  niece,  when  after  the  war,  she  married 
the  soldier  with  the  silver  knee  buckles,  and  which  bore  the 
stamp  of  the  British  crown  and  the  initial  "  G."  The  captain 
came  in  from  the  field,  powdered  his  queue  and  dressed  for 
dinner.  He  was  a  "  spruce n  man.  George  III.  and  Lord 
North  suffered  in  reputation  at  that  dinner.  The  ladies- 
made  good  report  of  their  sisters  in  Boston  in  resisting 
tyranny  by  abstaining  from  tea  and  their  determination  never 
to  yield,  though  the}-  suffered  greatly.  Not  observing  the- 
merry  twinkle  in  their  eyes  as  they  looked  at  Mrs.  Joselyn, 
the  deacon  gravely  remarked  that  the  Lord  would  crown  such 
resistance  to  tyranny  with  success.  Dinner  over  and  the- 
deacon  away  in  the  field,  about  four  o'clock,  in  an  upper  room 
behind  the  great  stone  chimney,  cheerful  ladies  sipped  delici- 
ous green  tea,  while  Thankful  (that  was  grandma's  name)- 
"  stood  sentry  "  to  give  warning  of  the  approach  of  any  per- 
son, and  especially  of  Deacon  Joselyn.  Here  they  sipped  and 
related  how  Mrs.  Adams,  Mrs.  Otis,  Mrs.  Robert  Treat  Paine,, 
and  other  wives  of  distinguished  patriots  used  to  meet  to 
sympathize  and  "  suffer  "  at  their  respective  houses  ;  and  how 
it  was  conceded  without  reservation  that  Mrs.  John  Hancock 
gave  delightful  parties,  at  which  tea  was  served,  in  her 
elegant  stone  mansion  on  Beacon  street,  overlooking  the 
Puritan  city  and  the  green  slopes  of  Bunker  Hill.  Her  hus- 
band being  a  great  merchant,  it  was  believed  she  had  been 
made  the  consignee  of  several  chests  of  the  delicious  leaves 
to  enable  the  generous  lady  to  relieve  extreme  cases  of  suf- 
fering after  the  passage  of  the  anti-tea  resolution.  In  the 
height  of  their  enjoyment  three  successive  guns  boomed  on 
Dorchester  heights  ,-  and'  before  their  reverberations  had  died1 
away,  three  quick  discharges  of  musketry  rattled  in  the  vil- 
lage. The  long  expected  alarm  had  come.  The  first  told 
that  a  detachment  of  the  British  army  were  filing  out  on; 
the  Lexington  road..  The  second,  the  rally  of  the  minute' 


TEA    DRINKING    AND    TALES    OF    A    GRANDMOTHER.          6£ 

men.  Almost  simultaneously  with  the  home  signal  a 
mounted  man  in  "  regimentals  "  dashed  up  to  the  door  and 
demanded,  "  Where  is  Captain  Joselyn  ? rr  The  sentinel  of* 
the  tea  party,  although  she  well  understood  the  signal  gun,, 
yet  in  her  fright  she  imagined  that  somebody  knew  about  the 
ladies  behind  the  chimney,  and,  unable  to  speak,  she  pointed 
the  messenger  in  the  direction  where  the  captain  was  then 
coming,  having  already  unyoked  the  oxen  and,  like  Cincin- 
natus,  left  the  plow  in  the  furrow.  In  a  short  time  Captain 
Joselyn  and  the  minute  men  were  on  the  march  to  Concord,, 
and  the  maiden  sentinel  was  "  thankful  that  it  was  not  any 
worse." 

In  those  days  "minister  meetings"  were  often  held  at 
Deacon  Joselyn's,  for  which  it  was  necessar}*  to  make  extra- 
ordinary preparations.  Unlike  the  advanced  Christian  civil- 
ization of  our  day  it  was  deemed  indispensable  upon  such 
occasions  for  the  deacon,  whose  house  was  honored  with  the 
assembly  to  furnish  some  "sperits,"  and  as  "Old  Jamaica"  was 
the  recognized  article  for  persons  of  "quality,"  it  was  necessary 
to  go  to  Boston  for  it,  nothing  but  an  inferior  article,  called 
"  new,"  being  obtainable  at  the  village  store.  At  these  meet- 
ings were  discussed  everything  pertaining  to  the  sacred  order- 
and  their  several  fields  of  labor  :  theology,  discipline,  educa- 
tion, not  forgetting  politics  and  the  patriotic  cause.  They  were 
wont  to  be  less  austere  than  when  moving  among  their- 
several  parishioners,  were  very  genial  and  social,  enlivening 
the  meeting  with  good  stories,  capital  jokes  and  with  witty 
repartee. 

There  was  once  a  sad  occurrence.  Two  reverend 
brothers  became  unduly  excited  in  the-  argument  of  some* 
important  point,  and  losing  their  equanimity,  exchanged' 
unclerical  remarks,  and,  not  letting  their  wrath  go  down  with 
the  sun,  separated  without  a  brotherly  salutation,  to  the 
astonishment  of  the  deacon's  family  and  the  humiliation  of" 
the  rest  of  the  brethren.  But  the  ample  cloak  of  our  grand- 


•64         TEA    DRINKING   AND    TALES    OF    A    GRANDMOTHER. 

another's  charity  was  spread  OA'er  the  erring  brothers  when 
she  said,  "  They  were  very  godly  men.  but  Deacon  Joselyn's 
•old  Jamaica  was  dreadful  strong.'' 

When  in  after  years  she  entertained  her  grandchildren,  she 
would  sometimes  remind  them  that  the}-  were  eating  off 
,,a  plate  that  came  from  the  "  shelf"  of  the  last  royal  governor ; 
but  her  pork  and  beans  had  a  delicious  relish,  which  they  af- 
fectionately attributed  to  a  more  interesting  source  than  the 
British  crown,  or  St.  George  and  the  dragon,  emblazoned  in 
.the  center  of  her  great  pewter  dinner  platter. 

The  intended  celebration  would  be  a  fine  occasion  to  bring 
out  and  familiarize  the  present  generation  with  the  old  pa- 
triotic literature.  Let  Cleveland's  fine  readers  and  sweet 
.singers  assist  to  enliven  the  tea  sipping  with  the  "  Liberty 
Tree,"  "The  Battle  of  the  Kegs,"  by  the  old  Philadelphia 
patriot,  Hopkinson.;  and  "Hail  Columbia/'  by  his  distin- 
guished son,  Judge  Hopkinson:  Key's  "Star  Spangled 
Uanner,"  and  not  forgetting  Perry's  victory  : 

"  Ye  tars  of  Columbia,  give  ear  to  my  story, 
Who  fought  with  brave  Perry  where  cannons  did  roar; 

Your  valor  has  gained  you  an  immortal  glory, 

And  a  fame  that  shall  last  you  when  time  is  no  more." 

If  no  grandeur  is  found  in  that  verse,  try  this  : 

"Says  Perry,  Those  rascals  intend  for  to  drown  us  — 
Fight  on,  my  brave  boys,  you  never  need  fear; 

And  with  his  own  coat  he  did  stop  up  the  boat, 

And  away  through  sulphur  and  smoke  he  did  steer." 

"For  to  drown"  may  seem  a  little  quaint,  but  it  is  good 
old  English,  if  not  Oriental — "What  went  ye  out  for  to  see  ?'' 
The  lads  of  our  youth,  who  never  saw  the  printed  text,  and 
cared  only  for  the  substance,  which  they  got  from  tradition, 
;used  to  render  one  line  thus  — 

**  And  with  his  -old  coat  he  did  plug  up  the  boat." 


TEA    DRINKING    AND    TALES    OF    A    GRANDMOTHER.          65 

The  "  Battle  Hjmn  of  the  Republic,"  by  the  learned  and 
graceful  Julia  Ward  Howe,  will,  of  course,  not  be  omitted. 

There  are  many  grand  passages  in  the  quaint,  old  litera- 
ture, that  a  good  reader  can  develop  with  stirring  effect.  We 
know  that  the  great  artists  in  music,  whose  tastes  and  powers 
are  cultivated  to  the  strains  of  the  great  masters,  do  not 
indulge  much  in  the  tyrics  of  the  people.  But  these  old 
songs  of  the  fathers,  at  least  once  in  a  hundred  years,  are  as 
good  for  patriotism  as  prayer  is  for  the  soul. 

We  remember,  in  the  days  of  the  Sepoy  rebellion,  to  have 
read  in  the  London  Times  some  sneering  remarks  of  an  army 
correspondent  about  the  trivial  pastimes  of  the  Highland 
regiments  the  night  of  their  last  bivouac  on  the  bank  of  the 
Ganges,  on  their  march  to  the  relief  of  Lucknow,  because  they 
whiled  away  some  sleepless  hours  by  singing  "Bonny  Doon" 
and  "  Mary's  Dream  "- 

"The  moon  had  climbed  the  highest  hill 
That  rises  o'er  the  source  of  Dee, 
And  from  its  eastern  summit  shed 
Her  silver  light  on  tower  and  tree." 

We  felt  something  of  pity  for  the  man  whose  soul  was  not 
gifted  to  appreciate  the  most  felicitous  of  Scotland's  lyrics 
upon  the  sultry  plains  of  Hindostan.  But  when,  in  the  be- 
leagured  city,  the  practiced  ear  of  the  Scotch  lassie,  Jessie 
Brown,  heard,  in  advance  of  all  others,  the  distant  notes  of  the 
bagpipe,  and,  frantic  with  joy,  ran  with  streaming  hair  through 
the  streets  of  Lucknow  crying,  "The  Campbells  are  coming  ! 
Dinna  ye  hear  the  slogan  ?"  the  English  women  and  children 
had  no  criticisms  for  the  songs  of  the  Highlanders,  or  the 
•crazy  notes  of  the  bagpipe. 

Success  to  the  celebration  ;   let  it  be  an  occasion 

"That  will  ne'er  be  forgot 
By  those  who  were  there, 
And  those  who  were  not." 


66  SCIENCE,    LITERATURE    AND    LAW. 


SCIENCE,  LITERATURE  AND  LAW. 


R  several  years  we  have  passed  through  the  hall  of  the 
great  Case  Library  building  and  noticed  a  sign  upon  one 
of  the  doors,  bearing  the  legend  "Kirtland  Society."  Never 
having  seen  any  one  pass  in  or  out  at  that  door,  we  had  sup- 
posed it  the  private  club  room  of  a  few  amateur  scientists, 
admiring  disciples,  perhaps,  of  the  Venerable  and  famous 
naturalist  whose  widely  known  and  honored  name  they  had 
placed  upon  their  door  to  give  dignity  to  their  occasional 
meetings  and  pleasant  discussions  of  the  flora,  fauna,  and  fos- 
sils of  the  rock,  or  to  lend  grace  to  an  entomological  discus- 
sion of  the  genus  and  characteristics  of  some  newly  captured 
member  of  the  Arachnida  family,  a  microscopic  examination 
of  an  atom,  a  molecule,  the  spectrum  analysis  of  the  sun,  or  a 
ray  from  a  remoter  star. 

Within  a  few  days  a  friend  has  loaned  us  a  pamphlet  en- 
titled :  Proceedings  of  the  Cleveland  Academy  of  Natural 
Science,  1845  to  1859  ;  also  the  papers  of  the  Kirtland  So- 
ciety, and  in  addition  thereto  has  not  only  turned  the  key  and 
initiated  us  into  the  society's  working  room,  but  also  into  that 
wondrous  world  of  nature  and  art  in  that  larger  room,  which 
before  we  knew  not  of,  two  flights  of  stairs  above — the  Hall 
of  Natural  Science  —  the  heaven  of  the  taxidermist,  the  con- 
chologist,  and  the  geologist,  where  the  fossil  mammoth  reptile 
and  fish  of  the  remoter  geological  cycles,  and  the  bird  of  later 
ages  and  modern  plumage,  rest  quietly  and  silently  side  by 
side,  as  the  lamb  and  the  lion  shall  yet  lie  down  together  in 
peace. 

The  rare,   costly  and  admirably  classified  objects  in   the 


SCIENCE,    LITERATURE    AND    LAAV.  67 

Kirtland  Society's  Museum  would  delight  alike  the  shade  of 
Audubon,  the  spirit  of  Lyell,  and  the  soul  of  Agassiz.  But 
why  should  these  innumerable  specimens,  culled  from  the 
great  storehouse  of  Nature,  classified  and  arranged  with  ex- 
act scientific  knowledge  and  artistic  skill  be  doomed  to  a  place 
so  inaccessible  and  remote  ?  The  catacombs  of  Borne,  the 
temples  of  Denderah,  and  the  tombs  in  the  honey-combed 
rocks  of  the  Upper  Nile,  are  about  as  well  known  to  our  citi- 
zens as  is  the  hiding-place  of  the  museum  of  the  Kirtland 
Society.  That  "  upper-room "  in  Jerusalem  could  hardly 
have  been  less  known  to  the  chief  priests  than  is  the  room 
which  contains  these  invaluable  treasures  of  natural  science, 
to  the  people  of  Cleveland. 

But,  thanks  to  our  thoughtful  friend,  we  are  not  as  ignorant 
now  as  before.  We  have  read  through  the  twenty-four  years' 
proceedings  of  the  Academy,  and  the  papers  of  the  Kirtland 
Society,  with  benefit  and  delight.  Never  wholly  unconscious 
that  Cleveland  could  justly  claim  a  goodly  number  of  edu- 
cated men  and  devoted  workers  in  the  departments  of  science, 
yet  we  never  knew  till  now  the  full  merit  of  our  city's  claim 
to  public  attention  in  this  respect.  No  one  of  common  intel- 
ligence could  fail  to  know  much  of  Professor  Kirtland,  the 
Nestor  of  naturalists,  and  something  of  the  circle  of  accom- 
plished minds  of  which  he  has  so  long  been  the  center.  How- 
ever, until  we  read  the  learned  papers  of  the  Academy  and 
Kirtland  Society,  we  did  not  know  how  broad  were  the  several 
fields  of  science  which  had  been  worked,  how  numerous  had 
been  the  laborers  in  our  midst,  nor  the  wealth  and  splendor  of 
the  harvest.  After  reading  the  papers  of  Col.  Whittlesey  and 
Prof.  Newberry  on  the  coal  fields  of  Ohio,  one  would  almost 
expect  to  hear  that  after  the  winter's  supply  had  been  fur- 
nished for  the  grate,  the  tasteful  lady  would  adorn  her  center 
table  with  a  silver  basket  of  bituminous  coal  and  a  microscope, 
and  indulge  her  instinctive  love  of  flowers  in  the  stud}7  of  the 
fossil  flora  of  Ohio. 


68  SCIENCE,    LITERATURE    AND    LAW. 

From  the  cedar  of  Lebanon  to  the  hyssop  that  grows  on  the 
wall,  in  every  department  of  botany,  a  new  and  awakened  in- 
terest is  inspired  by  the  fascinating  paper  of  Prof.  J.  Lang 
Cassels  upon  the  mosses  found  in  the  vicinity  of  Cleveland. 
Our  veneration  for  the  ancient  church  or  ancestral  home,  upon 
whose  walls  mosses  creep  and  ivy  twines,  surpasses  our  ad- 
miration for  the  latest  structure,  however  elegant,  and  "  the 
moss-covered  bucket"  has  a  place  in  the  affections  which  can 
never  be  supplanted  by  the  most  expensive  water- works  or  the 
most  approved  pattern  of  a  pump.  Moss  is  the  garment 
which  nature  supplies  to  protect  the  earth  from  exposure  in 
barren  places,  the  aged  tree  from  northern  blasts,  and  the  man- 
tle of  oblivion  which  she  draws  over  the  patriarch  of  the  for- 
est when  he  falls  to  the  earth.  We  were  surprised  at  the  suc- 
cess in  developing  and  exhibiting  the  rare  and  exquisite 
beauties  of  that  delicate  and  infinitesimal  plant,  attained  by 
the  eminent  professor  in  his  illustrated  paper  read  before  the 
Academy. 

If  one  would  know  the  ocean,  its  origin  and  phenomena, 
the  lecture  of  Prof.  Jehu  Brainard  is  ingenious  and  plausible 
in  theory,  and  develops  the  subject  very  fully,  even  to  the  ut- 
most extent  compatible  with  the  present  state  of  geological 
knowledge.  His  chemical  analysis  of  Berea  sandstone  is  an 
interesting  exposure  of  the  chemical  secrets,  in  pursuance  of 
whose  inexorable  law  nature  deposited  her  surplus  resources 
in  the  safe  and  reliable  Bank  of  Berea,  from  which  are  now 
being  issued  such  enormous  amounts  of  gritty  bullion  and 
circular  grindstone  coin  without  embarrassment  or  inflation. 
Anticipating  by  millions  of  years  the  ultimate  needs  of  man, 
Nature  established  at  Amherst  a  sinking  fund,  wherein  was 
deposited  and  solidified  her  purest  dust,  to  be  in  after  ages 
checked  out  in  amplest  amounts  for  the  beautifying  and 
adorning  of  distant  cities.  Central  Park,  New  York,  checks 
largety  against  this  deposit.  Cleveland  is  now  testing  the 
resources  of  the  Amherst  Sinking  Fund  by  heavy  drafts  to 


SCIENCE,    LITERATURE    AND    LAW.  69 

build  a  viaduct  that  shall  span  the  chasm,  which  had  no  ex- 
istence when  the  rocky  foundations  of  Amherst  were  laid. 

Not  the  least  among  the  interesting  contributions  is  a  valu- 
able one  to  meteorological  knowledge,  so  fully  developed  in 
these  later  years  by  telegraphic  and  governmental  aid,  in  the 
paper  of  Mr.  G.  A.  Hyde,  showing  the  use  of  the  barometer 
and  thermometer  in  indicating  the  approach  of  storms,  where- 
in we  think  he  is  entitled  to  rank  as  an  intelligent  observer  of 
the  upper  elements,  and  as  a  pioneer  in  the  study  and  inter- 
pretation of  the  laws  which  govern  the  once  mysterious 
phenomena  of  storms. 

The  sacred  record  declares  the  genesis  of  animated  nature 
to  have  come  in  obedience  to  the  fiat  of  the  Creator,  who  in 
the  same  breath  decreed  for  every  creature  upon  earth,  as  the 
law  of  its  life,  that  each  should  reproduce  after  its  kind,  and 
the  fishes  of  the  sea,  and  every  living  creature  which  the 
waters  brought  forth  abundantly,  after  its  kind.  To  man,  the 
highest  type  of  animated  creation,  has  been  given  dominion 
over  the  lesser  forms,  and  the  universal  field  has  been  assigned 
to  him  for  the  exercise  of  his  genius  and  powers,  for  the 
development  and  perfection  of  the  wonderful  works  of  the 
Divine  Creator.  The  ancient  laws  of  consanguinity  were  insti- 
tuted for  the  preservation  and  development  of  the  human 
race.  Hybridization,  or  crossing,  has  been  discovered  in  the 
experience  of  man  to  improve  the  blood  and  quality  of  the 
horse  no  less  than  of  the  cattle  upon  a  thousand  hills.  The 
fishes  of  the  sea,  and  the  living  creatures  which  the  waters 
have  brought  forth  so  abundantly  in  the  long  ages  past,  have 
been  less  subjected  to  the  observation  and  control  of  man 
than  the  beasts  of  the  field  and  the  birds  of  the  air,  for  their 
realm  is  the  ocean,  the  rivers  and  the  lakes,  and  man  can  ex- 
ist therein  to  know  their  ways  and  habits,  no  more  than  a 
slave  can  breathe  the  air  of  England. 

In  the  field  of  piscatorial  observation  and  practical  scientific 
knowledge,  Cleveland,  now  and  for  all  coming  time,  may 


70  SCIENCE,    LITERATURE    AND    LAW. 

cherish  with  pride  the  pages  in  the  Acadenr^'s  record  of  pro- 
ceedings which  contain  the  enunciation  of  the  practicability 
and  elucidation  of  the  process  of  the  artificial  propagation 
and  cultivation  of  fish.  Twentj^-one  }Tears  ago  (1854)  not 
only  his  colleagues  and  cotemporaries  in  kindred  studies,  but 
readers  of  natural  history  and  reflective  minds  generally,  were 
surprised  and  delighted  in  the  perusal  of  the  first  paper  upon 
the  subject  ever  read  in  America  by  one  who  had  practically 
demonstrated  its  possibilit}'  and  predicted  the  benefits  to  the 
present  and  to  future  generations — Dr.  Theodatus  Garlick. 

Having  the  aid  of  no  hints  or  suggestions  but  such  as  he 
was  enabled  to  obtain  from  the  practical  fishermen  of  the 
Moselle,  Remy  and  Gehin,  and  the  paper  of  M.  Coste  before 
the  French  Academy,  and  with  no  American  predecessor,  as 
Morse  had  an  electric  precursor  in  a  Franklin,  he  is  the  first 
of  his  line  in  this  branch  of  natural  science — the  artificial  fe- 
cundation and  development  of  the  ova  of  the  fish.  This  paper 
of  Dr.  Garlick,  followed  by  a  small  book  which  he  was  neces- 
sitated to  write  as  a  general  answer  to  the  queries  propounded 
to  him  in  innumerable  letters  from  all  parts  of  the  country, 
was  itself  an  egg  of  wonderful  fecundity  from  which  has  been 
hatched  a  "school"  of  fish  commissioners  in  nearly  every 
State,  whose  labors  have  already  resulted  in  stocking  the  ex- 
hausted rivers  and  ponds  in  most  of  the  older  States,  and 
more  than  justifying  his  modest  prediction  therein,  that  "  the 
immense  advantages  resulting  from  this  discovery,  particu- 
larly in  countries  abounding  in  such  a  variety  and  extent  of 
inland  waters  as  our  own,  can  hardly  be  estimated." 

The  department  of  Ichthyology  in  the  Kirtland  Society's 
Museum  has  been  extensively  and  beautifully  illustrated  by 
the  skillful  hand  in  plastic  art  of  Dr.  Elisha  Sterling,  who  has 
produced  in  almost  living  semblance  a  great  variety  of  the 
most  rare  and  renowned  fishes  of  our  inland  waters,  from  Lake 
Superior  to  the  Gulf  of  St.  Lawrence.  The  same  eminent 
surgeon,  who  studied  under  Yelpeau  in  the  college  of  France, 


SCIENCE,    LITERATURE    AND    LAW.  71 

and  listened  to  lectures  on  public  hygiene  by  Magendie,  in 
rubber  boots  and  coat,  in  the  sewers  and  subterranean  canals 
of  Paris,  has  also  contributed  largely  to  the  department  of 
Ornithology,  having  been  an  enthusiastic  taxidermist  from 
his  boyhood.  The  value  of  the  material  supplied  by  Dr- 
Sterling  to  the  Kirtland  Museum  and  the  Cleveland  Histori- 
cal Society,  which  is  another  highly  interesting  and  important 
institution  of  which  the  people  seem  to  know  much  less  than 
they  should,  can  hardly  be  estimated,  and  in  some  respects, 
especially  in  relics  and  souvenirs  of  the  late  war,  can  they 
hardly  be  measured  for  quantity,  and  always  of  the  most 
unique  specimens. 

It  seems  as  though  the  rich  in  material,  but  scattered  and 
diversified  scientific  and  historical  institutions  and  libraries  of 
Cleveland  ought  to  be  gathered  under  one  roof  and  brought  into 
conditions  of  accessibility  and  public  observation  ;  and  where 
could  an  increased  public  interest  in  such  treasures  be  better  ob- 
tained and  more  securely  held  than  by  their  concentration,  if  not 
consolidation,  in  our  new  and  elegant  city  hall  ?  If  by  possibility 
some  one  shall  ask  what  all  the  study  and  toil  of  our  thinkers 
and  workers  in  natural  science  has  amounted  to,  and  of  what 
intrinsic  value  has  it  been  to  them  or  to  us,  the  answer  may 
be  truthfully  made  that  from  the  labors  of  these  men  and 
their  coadjutors  in  the  same  fields,  has  come  in  no  small  de- 
gree the  growth  and  commercial  prosperity  of  our  city.  The 
copper  and  iron  mines  of  Lake  Superior  have  been  searched 
out  and  their  qualities  made  known  by  them.  The  coal  of 
Ohio  has  been  studied  and  analyzed  so  that  a  bushel  of  the 
best  kind  for  domestic  use,  for  the  manufacturer,  and  for  gas, 
may  be  as  readily  known  to  the  purchaser  as  a  bushel  of  the 
best  kind  of  potatoes.  The  great  stone  quarries  of  our 
neighborhood  have  been  brought  to  light  and  their  merits 
made  known  to  the  architect  and  builder  by  the  geologist  and 
chemist.  Fishes  have  been  made  to  swarm  in  the  once  ex- 
hausted and  depopulated  rivers  and  cheapened  the  food  of 


72  SCIENCE,    LITERATURE    AND    LAW. 

the  people.  They  have  elevated  the  thoughts  and  cheered 
the  hearts  of  thousands  by  an  increase  of  knowledge,  the 
great  source  of  mental  power  and  manly  independence.  The 
influence  of  our  local  scientists  has  culminated  in  the  Kirt- 
land  School,  which,  with  thoughtful  care  and  public  con- 
sideration is  probably  destined  to  be  the  successor  of  that 
which  was  famous  at  Penikese  while  Agassiz  lived.  It 
already  contributes  to  such  social  advantages  and  pleasures 
as  are  derived  from  the  presence,  even  temporarily,  among  our 
people,  of  eminent  professors  and  instructors  such  as  are 
recognized  in  the  persons  of  Brooks,  Comstock  and  Tuttle. 

While  many  of  the  pioneers  in  natural  science  have  passed 
away,  a  few  happily  remain  to  salute  the  dawn  of  a  more 
brilliant  future,  when,  possessing  the  Kirtland  and  Histor- 
ical Societies,  the  Case  School  of  Applied  Science,  the  Adel- 
bert  College  of  the  Western  Reserve  University,  each 
sustained  by  the  munificent  endowments  of  generous  and 
judicious  citizens,  and  the  recently  established  Law  College, 
Cleveland  shall  be  celebrated  not  alone  for  its  beauty  tuid 
commercial  and  industrial  enterprise,  but  renowned  in  the 
ages  to  come  as  the  seat  of  science,  literature  and  law. 
Already  she  holds  within  her  embrace  the  first  astronomical 
mathematician  of  the  present  generation.  Professor  John  N. 
Stockwell,  the  head  of  the  Case  School  of  Applied  Science, 
has  been  for  a  decade  famous  among  the  savants  and  scientists 
of  America  and  Europe,  no  less  for  his  own  wonderful  origi- 
nal planetary  problems  than  for  his  revision  and  correction  of 
the  great  and  hitherto  standard  astronomical  computations  of 
La  Grange  and  Leverriere. 

If,  as  beautifully  expressed  by  Oersted,  "The  laws  of 
Nature  are  the  thoughts  of  God,"  man's  noblest  aspirations 
will  find  highest  gratification  in  reading  what  is  still  unread 
in  the  wonderful  manuscripts  of  the  Creator — Earth,  Air  and 
Light. 


THE    IBERIAN    AND    THE    GAUL.  73 


THE  IBERIAN  AND  THE  GAUL. 


T  X  7"HEN,  in  1869,  Samuel  S.  Cox  stood  within  the  court  of 
*  *  the  Alhambra,  inspired  by  the  historical  associations 
of  centuries,  and  addressed  an  assembly  of  the  soldiers  and 
citizens  of  Spain  upon  those  certain  unalienable  rights,  life, 
liberty,  and  the  pursuit  of  happiness,  and  the  republic  be- 
yond the  Atlantic,  he  probably  little  thought  that  in  less  than 
five  years  Spain  would  charge  her  most  eminent  historian  and 
statesman,  Emilio  Castelar,  with  the  exalted  duty  of  drafting 
a  constitution  for  a  free  and  confederate  government  based 
upon  the  model  of  the  United  States. 

Three  hundred  and  seventy-seven  years  before,  Boabdil,  re- 
tiring before  the  united  armies  of  Aragon  and  Castile, 
marched  out  the  southern  gate  and  made  his  last  sad  biv- 
ouac on  the  snowy  mountains  overlooking  Grenada  and  the 
lovely  valley  of  the  Guadalquiver,  forever  to  be  perpetuated 
as  "  The  last  sigh  of  the  Moor ; "  then  passing  beyond  the 
Mediterranean,  Ferdinand  and  Isabella  reigned  in  Andalusia 
and  held  their  court  in  the  palace  of  the  Alhambra. 

As  the  Roman  general  ran  the  plowshare  [over  Mount  Zion, 
in  token  that  the  temple  should  never  again  be  rebuilt,  and 

Babarossa 

Would  not  halt 

At  Milan's  ashes  sown  with  salt, 

so  Ferdinand  closed  up  with  solid  masonry  the  rarched  por- 
tal from  out  which  the  Moors  had  sallied  in  token  that  they 
should  never  more  return.  In  the  beautiful  spring  of  1492, 
Columbus  witnessed  the  evacuation  of  the  Moors,  and  then 
and  there  in  the  gilded  audience  hall  of  the  Alhambra,  on 


74  THE    IBERIAN    AND    THE    GAUL. 

bended  knee,  sought  the  royal  patronage  for  his  momentous 
enterprise  upon  the  untraversed  western  ocean. 

While  there  is  much  to  hope  and  little  to  expect  for  free 
government  in  Europe,  there  is  to-day  more  prospect  of  realiz- 
ing something  approximating  thereto  in  Spain  than  in  France. 
Amadeus,  who  came  through  Prim's  betrayal  of  the  republi- 
can cause  which  he  had  partially  espoused,  even  so  long  before 
as  when  he  kissed  his  sword  in  salute  of  Isabella,  discovered 
it,  and  had  the  grace  to  acknowledge  it  by  his  abdication. 
Thiers,  between  the  representatives  of  the  dynasty  and  the 
legitimatists  in  an  Assembly — itself  a  usurpation — never  had 
a  reliable  majority  for  either  the  president  or  the  republic. 
He  foresaw  the  end  and  resigned.  The  end  has  come,  though 
not  explicitly  proclaimed.  The  marshal  who  but  lately  lost 
an  emperor  and  an  empire  and  surrendered  an  army,  is  now 
the  head  of  a  nominal  republic^  the  very  name  of  which  he 
despises,  and  which,  with  a  Bonapartist  ministry,  he  but  tem- 
porarily holds  for  the  advent  of  Napoleon  IV.  and  a  regency. 

The  wonderful  result  of  the  election  in  May  (1872)  that  re- 
turned to  the  Spanish  Cortes  310  ministerial  federalists  against 
30  monarchists,  besides  48  independent  and  radical  republicans, 
indicates  a  greater  degree  of  personal  independence  and  intel- 
lectual freedom  than  most  persons  supposed  to  exist  in  that 
ancient  and  austere  monarchy.  But  Spanish  royalty  has 
long  been  of  the  most  inferior  type  in  Europe,  and  the  divine 
right  of  kings  has  apparently  become  an  idea  cherished  only 
in  the  minds  of  the  simple,  and  Bourbon  royalty  to  rank  only 
with  chivalry  after  the  satire  of  Cervantes. 

The  federal  constitution,  if  once  fairly  launched  with  a 
president,  a  congress  and  a  supreme  court,  with  fifteen  depart- 
ments organized  as  States,  each  with  its  governor,  legislature 
and  courts,  based  on  universal  suffrage,  the  bond  of  Union 
will  be  formed,  which  alone  can  preserve  the  republic  and  defy 
alike  the  heirs  of  Isabella  and  Don  Carlos. 

Spain  is  more  favorably  situated  geographically  for  the  trial 


THE    IBERIAN    AND    THE    GAUL.  75 

of  republican  government  than  France.  Shut  off  from  the 
rest  of  Europe  by  the  formidable  barrier  of  the  Pyrenees,  her 
.people  are  more  indifferent  to  fashion  and  courts,  and  her 
ambitious  men  expect  less  at  the  hands  of  royalty  than  in 
France  or  elsewhere  on  the  continent.  Her  departments  are 
less  in  number  and  much  larger  in  extent,  generally,  than  in 
France ;  permitting  of  more  exact  equalization  in  representa- 
tion. Besides  she  has  learned  and  able  men  in  abundance ; 
and  what  is  quite  noteworthy,  her  most  accomplished  states- 
men seem  very  much  in  earnest  for  the  success  of  the  republic 
and  the  advancement  of  constitutional  liberty. 

The  mind  can  be  pleasantly  amused  in  contemplating  the 
possibility  that  a  similarity  of  institutions  may  yet  prompt 
us  to  look  with  anxiety  for  the  election  returns  from  the  three 
great  Spanish  States  of  Estremadura,  Catalonia  and  Andalusia, 
as  we  do  now  for  like  results  from  Ohio,  Pennsylvania  and 
New  York ;  and  to  regard  Andorra,  in  the  Pyrenees,  like  Ver- 
mont, as  the  star  that  never  sets ;  and  that  we  shall  read  with 
interest  the  speeches  of  the  great  senators  of  Spain,  and  be 
edified  with  the  remarks  of  the  member  from  La  Mancha, 
Don  Quixote's  old  district,  who  will  speak  for  "buncombe." 
But  the  perfection  of  political  sympathy  with  kindred  insti- 
tutions will  have  attained  its  fullness  when  our  orators  shall 
be  invited  to  assist  at  a  hickory  pole  raising  at  Salamanca,  or 
to  address  in  mass  meeting  the  "tanners"  of  Toledo.  But 
woe  to  the  Hidalgo  who  shall  aspire  to  a  seat  in  Congress  by 
seeking  to  make  subservient  to  his  political  interests  the 
national  "bull  fight." 

It  is  sorrowful  to  reflect  that  the  Marseillaise  and  the  songs 
of  Beranger  must  be  sung  only  in  strange  lands  ;  but  the  admin- 
istration of  Thiers  has  passed  into  history,  soon  to  be  remem- 
bered only  as  an  interregnum  between  the  imperial  captive  of 
Sedan  and  the  boy  who,  at  a  prudent  distance,  "  stood  his 
first  fire."  France  is  never  settled — she  oscillates  between 
glory  and  shame ;  and  there  is  a  suspicion  in  the  minds 


76  THE    IBERIAN    AND    THE    GAUL. 

of  the  most  sober  and  thoughtful  of  the  practicability  or 
desirableness  of  any  government  other  than  the  absolute, 
since  the  tigers  of  the  n>st  revolution  cut  off  the  heads  of 
Marie  Antoinette  and  the  beautiful  Madame  Roland. 

Unlike  our  own  country,  either  now  or  at  the  period  of  our 
revolution,  the  politics  of  France,  as  indeed  all  Europe,  is  in 
the  main  ecclesiastical,  and  such  issues  are  for  all  time,  and 
can  never  be  settled  either  by  the  ballot  or  the  sword ;  and, 
unhappily,  the  two  great  hierarchies,  no  less  than  the  kings, 
alike  regard  a  republican  government  as  an  abomination. 

Popular  government  has  some  true  and  able  friends ;  and 
the  publicists  of  France  write  abry  thereon,  but  their  disciples 
and  followers  are  too  frequently  egotists  and  impracticables, 
who,  when  such  a  government  is  in  their  hands,  load  it  with 
Fourierism  and  fraternity,  and  charge  it  with  the  unbearable 
burden  of  supplying  every  human  want,  besides  spending- 
money  for  holidays.  A  government  whose  president  is  simply 
an  executive  of  the  laws,  is  to  them  incomprehensible  and 
less  desirable  than  anarchy.  The  mass  of  the  rural  popula- 
tion take  no  more  interest  in  the  government  than  they  do  in 
the  cyclones  in  the  sun.  The  merchants  of  Marseilles  and 
the  shopkeepers  of  Paris,  the  silk  manufacturers  of  the 
Rhone,  the  makers  of  porcelain  and  the  artists  in  Grobelin 
tapestry  prefer  the  empire.  And  fashion,  born  of  luxurious 
courts,  and  worshiping  the  Montespans,  the  Pompadours,, 
and  the  dames  du  lac,  and  flourishing  upon  the  treasury  of 
royalty,  looks  with  disdain  upon  the  sobriety  and  economy  of 
a  republic.  What  French  woman,  or  American  for  that  mat- 
ter, covets  the  surplus  garments  of  a  president's  wife  ?  There 
is  poetry  and  romance  in  the  robes  of  Eugenie,  but  neither 
in  Madame  Thiers'  "best  gown." 

Finally,  the  great  sovereigns  of  Europe,  those  divinely 
favored  gentlemen  who  inherit  governments  and  peoples  like 
lands  and  chattels,  and  talk  of  "my  government"  and  "my 
family,"  and  even  the  thousand  and  one  little  kings  and 


THE    IBERIAN    AND    THE    GAUL.  77 

kinglets,  now  fortunately  absorbed  to  some  extent  in  the 
German  empire,  and  which  Castelar  so  neatly  characterizes  as 
"  the  relics  of  the  middle  ages,  ignes  fatui  in  the  graveyard 
of  history,"  all  ignore  the  inalienable  rights  of  man,  and 
make  their  constant  and  perpetual  protest  against  constitu- 
tional freedom. 

And  now  Liberty  drops  a  tear  upon  the  tomb  of  LaFayette, 
.and  Count  Armand  and  retires  beyond  the  Pyrenees.* 

When  Washington  was  in  his  cradle,  a  boy  of  Aragon  was 
playing  on  the  banks  of  the  Ebro,  who,  in  another  generation, 
became  the  minister  of  Charles  III.,  and  the  friend  of  the 
American  colonies ;  and  as  such  joined  France  in  the  treaty 
of  Paris,  recognizing  the  independence  of  the  United  States. 
Sympathizing  with  Spain  in  her  grandest  aspirations,  the 
grandsons  of  the  Revolution  will  remember  with  gratitude 
the  name  of  Aranda. 


*  The  writer  has  been  forced  by  later  events  to  modify  his  estimate 
of  the  comparative  adaptability  of  France  and  Spain  for  republican 
government,  and  tenders  his  resignation  of  the  office  of  political 
prophet  for  the  two  countries. 


78  THE    AMERICAN    LAKES. 


THE  AMERICAN  LAKES. 


T3  E SIDE  NTS  in  New  England  who  never  have  made  a 
*-^-  tour  of  the  American  Lakes,  or  looked  upon  a  map  with 
special  reference  to  the  length  and  amplitude  of  these  waters, 
can  have  but  a  faint,  if  any,  true  conception  of  the  magnitude 
of  these  inland  seas,  the  extent  of  their  commercial  marine, 
nor  of  the  destiny  that  awaits  the  cities  of  the  lakes,  when 
these  waters  have  borne  the  commerce  of  the  western  hemi- 
sphere as  many  hundred  years  as  the  Mediterranean  Sea  has 
that  of  the  eastern  thousands. 

The  maritime  commerce  of  the  lakes,  American  and  British, 
is  equal  to  the  whole  maritime  commerce  of  the  world  at  the 
time  when  the  universally  acknowledged  codes  of  maritime 
law  were  established,  and  is  not  surpassed  in  amount  of  ton- 
nage, in  the  character  of  its  ships  and  steamers,  nor  in  the 
quantity  and  value  of  cargo,  by  that  of  the  Mediterranean  at 
the  present  time. 

Here  is  a  commerce  which  requires  the  application,  and  to 
which  is  administered,  by  the  American  admiralty  courts,  the 
same  principles  and  rules  adopted  and  applied  by  the  com- 
mercial nations  of  antiquity,  and  recognized  and  enforced  by 
the  present.  To  the  business  of  these  waters  are  applied  the 
principles  of  the  laws  of  Oleron  and  Wisby,  ages  after  Oleron 
has  ceased  to  be,  and  the  ships  of  the  Baltic  have  failed  to 
find  harbor  at  Wisby.  The  commerce  of  the  lakes  is  not  yet 
twenty 'years  old,  and  has  therefore  been  confined  to  what  is 
regarded  as  a  coasting  trade ;  but  now  enterprise  is  about 
pushing  our  vessels  out  at  the  mouth  of  the  St.  Lawrence,  on 
European  voyages,  and  which  alread}T  have  been  found  a& 


THE    AMERICAN    LAKES.  79 

practicable  and  speedy  as   any  made  from  the  Black  and 
Mediterranean  Seas  to  London  or  St.  Petersburg. 

Was  it  ever  suggested  to  your  mind,  the  striking  parallel 
there  is  between  the  Mediterranean  Sea  and  its  connecting- 
waters,  its  ancient  cities  and  its  commerce,  and  the  great 
lakes  of  our  continent,  their  cities  and  their  commerce? 
History  and  the  map  shows  the  former  to  be  the  type  of  what 
the  latter  are,  and  are  yet  to  be.  Whoever  will  turn  his 
eyes  to  Mercator's  map  will  observe  that  the  two  great  seas 
occupy  a  geographical  position  in  the  center  of  their  respec- 
tive hemispheres,  each  having  its  source  or  head  far  in  the 
interior,  each  making  its  current  towards,  and  finding  its  out- 
let in,  the  Atlantic,  and  each  having  its  Pillar  of  Hercules  in 
a  Gibraltar  and  a  Quebec.  The  track  of  the  commerce  of  the 
first  is  in  a  line  from  east  to  west,  taking  the  overland  trade 
from  the  Tigris  and  Euphrates,  seeking  a  mart  in  Europe, 
while  the  course  of  the  second  is  from  west  to  east,  bringing 
the  products  of  the  great  valley  of  the  Mississippi  and  Mis- 
souri for  a  like  Atlantic  mart. 

The  parallel  is  not  lost,  but  is  equally  apparent  in  the  loca- 
tion and  characteristics  of  the  cities.  The  ancient  commer- 
cial city  of  Tyre,  at  the  head  of  the  Mediterranean,  backed  by 
the  valley  of  the  Tigris  and  Euphrates,  whose  waters  hasten 
on  to  the  Persian  Gulf,  finds  an  exact  counterpart,  in  every 
particular,  in  the  modern  commercial  city  of  Chicago,  with 
two  mightier  rivers  in  her  rear,  taking  a  like  southern  direc- 
tion, and  paying  their  tribute  of  waters  to  a  far  deeper  and 
more  expansive  gulf.  A  city  whose  history  may  never  be 
written  in  the  glittering  figures  of  Oriental  poetry,  but  though, 
scarce  twenty  years  of  her  commercial  existence  have  passed 
away,  she  is  pregnant  with  great  and  important  facts  for  an 
Anglo-Saxon  pen.  When  she  shall  have  arrived  to  a  tenth 
of  the  age  of  her  great  prototype,  her  granite  and  marble 
columns,  in  their  firm  and  upright  position,  will  attest  the 
grandeur  and  prosperity  of  her  citizens,  and  ages  must  pass 


SO  THE    AMERICAN    LAKES. 


^  before  they  will  be  found  in  the  bottom  of  the  sea, 
memorials  of  her  departed  glory.  And  so  fortunate  in  her 
position  is  our  modern  Tyre,  that  for  a  thousand  }'ears  no 
Alexander  can  build  a  rival  city,  transfer  her  commerce  and 
reduce  her,  in  the  fulfillment  of  the  denunciations  of  a 
prophet,  to  "  a  place  for  the  spreading  of  nets  in  the  midst  of 
the  sea." 

If  the  capital  of  the  Turkish  empire,  by  its  position  upon 
the  Bosphorus,  commands  the  entrance  to  the  Black  Sea  and 
the  commerce  of  the  Levant,  how  like  in  all  respects  is  the 
•city  of  Detroit,  variant  hardly  a  degree  in  latitude  from  the 
former  city,  situated  upon  a  no  less  important  strait,  com- 
manding the  entrance  to  a  Superior  sea,  and  participating  in 
.and  enjoying  the  commerce  of  all  the  lakes. 

Cleveland,  from  her  position  on  Lake  Erie,  and  her  com- 
mercial importance,  not  less  then  for  her  intrinsic  beauty  as  a 
cit}r,  may  not  inaptl}'  be  styled  the  Venice  of  the  Lakes. 
Though  Buffalo  may  exceed  her  in  the  amount  of  her  trans- 
shipments, yet  the  actual  local  productive  commerce  of  this 
•city,  taking  into  consideration  the  vast  coal  trade,  her  fleet  of 
steamers  in  the  copper  and  iron  transport  and  the  trade  of 
Lake  Superior,  more  than  one  thousand  miles  distant  to  the 
northwest,  together  with  her  shipments  of  flour  and  grain, 
her  packing  interests,  her  iron  foundries  and  her  copper  smelt- 
ing works,  all  tending  to  augment  her  commercial  importance, 
entitles  her  merchants,  importers  and  shippers,  to  introduce 
and  perform,  on  the  waters  of  old  Erie,  the  ancient  ceremony 
of  "wedding  the  Adriatic." 

The  coal  trade  of  Cleveland  is  second  only  to  that  of  Phila- 
delphia. Extensive  wharves  and  other  arrangements  are  now 
(1856)  being  made  by  E.  K.  Collins  &  Co.,  of  the  European  line 
of  steamers,  for  shipment  of  coal  from  this  port  to  Boston,  by 
wa}T  of  the  St.  Lawrence  and  the  Gulf,  for  the  supply  of  his 
steamers.  The  growth  of  this  city  has  been  great  within  the 
last  ten  years,  having  now  upwards  of  50,000  people,  and  is 


THE    AMERICAN    LAKES.  81 

steadily  advancing  in  population  and  increasing  in  number  of 
the  more  elegant  and  costly  buildings,  both  public  and  private. 
Among  the  former  of  which,  now  in  progress,  is  the  custom 
house,  post  office,  and  Unit.d  States  court  rooms;  the  latter 
being  made  necessary  to  the  establishment,  by  Congress,  of 
the  northern  judicial  district  of  Ohio,  and  fixing  terms  of  the 
U.  S.  circuit  and  district  courts  here.  This  is  within  the  cir- 
cuit of  Judge  McLean.  The  division  of  the  State  caused  the 
necessity  for  the  appointment  of  a  judge  for  the  northern 
district,  and  President  Pierce  and  the  Senate  gave  and  con- 
firmed the  appointment  to  Hon.  Hiram  V.  Willson,  a  distin- 
guished lawj'er  of  the  Cleveland  bar.  Judge  Willson  has 
now  been  upon  the  bench  of  the  U.  S.  district  court  nearly 
two  years,  and  the  bar  and  the  public  attest  the  wisdom  of 
the  appointment.  A  new  district  upon  these  commercial 
waters,  with  the  admiralty  jurisdiction  of  the  court  but 
recently  extended,  by  legislation  and  judicial  construction,  to 
maritime  cases  upon  the  lakes,  immediately  produced  many 
cases  involving  nice  and  complicated  questions  of  admiralty- 
law  and  practice.  In  the  decisions  he  has  made  and  the 
opinions  he  has  pronounced,  he  has  manifested  that  prompt- 
ness and  legal  acumen  and  research,  that  has  at  once  stamped 
him  as  a  judge  of  first-rate  ability.  In  person  he  reminds 
one  strikingly  of  the  late  Judge  Levi  Woodbury,  of  the 
U.  S.  supreme  court,  being  large  in  -person,  with  a  massive 
head  and  dark  countenance.  His  court  has  the  quiet  air  and 
becoming  dignity  of  the  law  tribunals  of  the  United  States 
and  of  Massachusetts,  contrasting  greatly  with  some  of  our 
State  courts  in  this  respect.  Judge  Willson  is  destined  to 
fame,  especially  as  an  admiralty  judge,  no  less  extended  than 
that  of  a  Ware  or  a  Belts. 

My  observation  thus  far,  in  Ohio,  has  not  been  favorable  to 

the  election  of  judges  by  the  people.     And  the  opinion  is 

very  general  that  judicial  elections  should,  at  all  events,  be 

separate  and  distinct   from   the   ordinary  political  canvass. 

6 


THE    AMERICAN    LAKES. 

But  low  salaries  and  short  tenure  has,  undoubted!}-,  more  to  do 
with  running  the  judicial  office  into  the  ground,  than  has  the 
matter  of  time  and  manner  of  election.  Good  judges  in  our 
State  are  the  exception  to  the  rule,  the  salaries  being  far  too 
small  to  command  that  talent  and  learning  which  would  be 
acceptable  to  the  people  of  New  England  for  judicial  position. 
One  of  the  most  marked  exceptions  is  that  of  Judge  Kufus 
P.  Ranney,  of  the  supreme  court  of  our  State,  who,  in  the 
short  term  of  five  years,  has  given  character  and  tone  to  the 
judicial  history  of  the  State.  He  is  yet  a  young  man,  and  if 
the  tenure  of  his  office  was  for  life,  or  even  for  ten  years,  his 
fame  as  a  profound  lawyer  and  judge  would  extend  beyond 
his  own  State,  and  his  opinions  command  a  respect,  wherever 
read,  equal  to  those  of  Chief  Justice  Shaw.  There  is  a 
prophecy  that  he  is  destined,  in  the  not  distant  future,  to  be 
called  to  the  supreme  bench  of  the  United  States. 

The  foregoing  was  correspondence  of  the  Boston  Post  in  1856. 


THE    TWO   DOCTORS.  83 


THE  TWO  DOCTORS. 


r  I AHE  interest  with  which  we  have  read  a  single  article  in  the 
August  number  of  the  Atlantic  Monthly  (1858),  prompts 
us  to  call  the  attention  of  those  to  it  whose  misfortune  it  has 
been  not  to  have  seen  and  read  it.  Allusion  is  here  made  to 
the  article  entitled  "Farming  Life  in  New  England,"  at- 
tributed to  the  brilliant  pen  of  Dr.  J.  G.  Holland,  of  Spring- 
field, Massachusetts,  who  is  hastening  on  to  the  just  celebrity 
of  one  of  the  most  interesting  and  fascinating  writers  in  New 
England.  He  is  certainty  destined  not  only  to  a  glorious  and 
undying  fame  as  a  poet  and  essayist,  but  his  name  and 
memory  is  to  be  loved  in  every  American  home.  There  is  a 
little  "  editorial "  which  our  eye  has  occasionally  met,  going 
the  rounds  of  the  newspapers  and  credited  to  the  Springfield 
Republican,  entitled  the  "  Little  Tin  Pail,"  the  noble  thoughts 
and  sentiments  of  which  called  up  to  our  recollection  the 
Hamlet  form  and  finely  chiseled  features  of  Springfield's  most 
accomplished  doctor.  It  seemed  to  be  flung  off  as  the  result 
of  his  observations  and  reflections  upon  meeting  the  thrifty 
and  cheerful  mechanic  on  his  way  to  his  daily  task,  bearing 
in  his  hand  the  well  known  little  tin  pail,  containing  the  plain 
and  wholesome  fare  for  the  day's  dinner,  with  not  unlikely  a 
choice  and  delicate  little  titbit  stowed  away  in  some  of  its 
compartments  and  recesses  by  the  hand  of  the  good  and  gen- 
erous wife,  to  delight  and  surprise  him,  and  to  remind  him  of 
the  love  that  awaited  his  return  at  the  close  of  the  day.  The 
New  England  mechanic  who  reads  those  gems  of  thought 
will  contribute  a  tear  of  gratitude  to  the  noble  author  for  his 


84  THE    TWO   DOCTORS. 

kind  reflections,  though  he  may  be  wholly  unconscious  who  it 
is  that  has  so  quietly  and  so  gently  touched  his  heart. 

But  it  was  of  the  article  in  the  monthly  that  we  started  to 
speak.  "  Farming  life  in  New  England "  is  pregnant  with 
living  and  glowing  facts  and  home  truths,  expressed  in  a 
clear,  terse  and  exceedingly  attractive  style.  It  furnishes  a 
series  of  pictures  of  the  life  and  habits  of  the  farmers  as  a 
class,  not  only  of  New  England,  but  elsewhere,  and  especially 
of  the  household  and  home,  its  arrangements  and  appoint- 
ments, which  are  in  effect  and  in  truth  an  illustrated  key  to 
the  influences  and  motives  which  prompt  the  brightest  and 
best  of  New  England  boys  to  forsake  the  old  homestead  and 
farm  and  to  seek  other  employments  in  life,  even  such  as  in- 
volve harder  and  more  constant  work  !  Demonstrating  in 
fac^  that  it  is  not  hard  work  which  the  young  man  seeks  to 
avoid,  but  that  the  secret  of  his  dissatisfaction  with  the  home, 
the  farm,  and  its  attractions,  lies  in  the  isolation  of  the 
farmer's  life,  its  unattractiveness,  and  the  utter  destitution  of 
refined  sociability.  That  man  will  work  harder  and  endure 
and  suffer  more  for  a  better  st}Tle  of  individual  and  social  life. 
Every  boy  and  man  of  keen  sensibilities  has  felt  and  realized 
the  truth  of  every  line  penned  by  this  able  contributor,  but 
never  has  the  philosophy  of  those  motives  and  feelings  been 
so  well  illustrated  as  in  these  pages.  The  condition  of  the 
mother,  her  cares  and  burdens  in  the  farm  home,  is,  by  the 
learned  doctor,  treated  with  surpassing  interest,  and  in  a 
manner  that  will  start  the  slumbering  sensibilities  of  the 
world  to  consciousness.  He  answers  the  pertinent  inquiry,  if 
the  mother  in  the  farm  house  is  ever  regarded  as  a  sacred  be- 
ing, by  exclaiming : — "  Look  at  her  hands  !  Look  at  her 
face  !  Is  it  more  important  to  raise  fine  colts  than  fine  men 
and  women  ?  To  expect  a  farmer's  life  and  a  farmer's  home 
to  be  attractive  when  the  mother  is  a  drudge,  and  secures  less 
consideration  than  the  pets  of  the  stall,  is  to  expect  impossi- 
bilities." 


THE    TWO   DOCTORS.  85 

if 

Is  there  a  farmer's  daughter,  who,  if  she  will  disclose  the 
unspeakable  things  of  her  heart,  will  say  the  following  is  not 
true  ?  "  The  boys  are  not  the  only  members  of  the  farmer's 
family  that  flee  from  the  farmer's  life.  The  most  intelligent 
and  most  enterprising  of  the  farmer's  daughters  become 
school  teachers,  or  tenders  of  shops,  or  factory  girls.  They 
contemn  the  calling  of  their  fathers  and  will,  nine  times  in  tenr 
marry  a  mechanic  in  preference  to  a  farmer.  They  know 
that  marrying  a  farmer  is  a  serious  business.  They  remem- 
ber their  worn-out  mothers.  They  thoroughly  understand 
that  the  vow  that  binds  them  in  marriage  to  a  farmer,  seals 
them  to  a  severe  and  homely  service  that  will  end  only  in 
death." 

The  emancipation  of  the  New  England  farmer  from  this 
condition  of  things,  it  is  maintained,  must  come  of  new  ideas 
rather  than  new  implements  ;  that  it  is  the  mind  and  not  the 
soil  from  which  must  start  the  process  of  regeneration.  "  The 
proprietor  of  that  soil  should  be  the  true  New  England  gentle- 
man. His  house  should  be  the  home  of  hospitality,  the  em- 
bodiment of  solid  comfort  and  liberal  taste,  the  theatre  of  an 
exalted  family  life,  which  should  be  the  master  and  not  the 
servant  of  labor,  and  the  central  sun  of  a  bright  and  happy 
social  atmosphere.  When  this  standard  shall  be  reached 
there  will  be  no  fear  for  New  England  agriculture.  The 
noblest  race  of  men  and  women  the  sun  ever  shone  upon,  will 
cultivate  these  valleys  and  build  their  dwellings  upon  these 
hills  ;  and  they  will  cling  to  a  life  which  blesses  them  with 
health,  plenty  and  individual  development,  and  social  progress 
and  happiness.  This  of  what  the  farmer's  life  may  be  and 
should  be  ;  and  if  it  ever  rises  to  this  in  New  England,, 
neither  prairie  nor  savanna  can  entice  her  children  away  ;  and 
waste  land  will  become  as  scarce,  at  least,  as  vacant  lots  in 
Paradise." 

We  trust  the  publishers,  will,  after  the  edition  is  sold,  let 
up  the  "  cop37right "  break  and  permit  the  article  to  trundle 


86  THE    TWO    DOCTORS. 

through  the  daily  and  weekly  journals  of  .the  country  till  it 
shall  have  been  universally  read.  Its  truths  are  of  concern  to 
thousands  ;  and  the  father  will  be  thankful  for  the  sugges- 
tions, and  the  mother  and  the  daughter  and  the  son  will  bless 
the  author  for  their  utterance. 

There  is  another  doctor  who  is  recognized  as  the  "  Auto- 
crat "  in  the  pages  of  this  monthly.  The  name  of  Oliver 
Wendell  Holmes  is  a  charm  and  a  joy  in  the  household  of 
every  cultivated  family  in  New  England.  His  papers  display 
the  rich  treasures  of  a  highly  gifted,  cultivated  and  genial 
mind.  While  they  overrun  with  mirth  -  and  dignified  fun, 
every  sentiment  is  suggestive  of  some  philosophic  truth  and 
"points  a  moral  or  adorns  a  tale."  It  requires  some  brains 
and  a  little  cultivation  to  full}'  compass  the  deep  meaning  of 
an  occasional  utterance,  and  the  uncultivated  young  man  or 
woman  who  delights  in  New  York  Ledger  story  literature, 
probably  would  not  find  interest  here.  The  article  in  the 
September  number,  attributed  to  this  gifted  man,  not  only 
sustains  the  character  of  its  predecessors  for  richness,  raci- 
ness  and  interest ;  but,  in  the  utterance  of  the  great  thoughts 
of  an  immortal  soul,  this  far  exceeds  that  of  any  former 
number. 

We  cannot  help  quoting,  in  confirmation  of  the  last  remark, 
from  the  "  Autocrat  of  the  Breakfast  Table,"  the  comparison 
of  Nature  as  she  manifests  herself  in  mountains  and  in  the 
sea.  There  is  a  ponderous  magnificence  in  the  concluding 
sentence  that  almost  starts  the  soul  from  its  socket. 

"  But  this  difference  there  is  :  you  can  domesticate  moun- 
tains, but  the  sea  is  ferce  naturce.  *  The  sea  remembers 
nothing.  It  is  feline.  It  licks  your  feet — its  huge  flanks 
purr  very  pleasantly  for  you  ;  but  it  will  crack  your  bones  and 
eat  you  for  all  that,  and  wipe  the  crimson  foam  from  its  jaws 
as  if  nothing  had  happened.  The  mountains  give  their  lost 
children  berries  and  water  ;  the  sea  mocks  their  thirst  and  lets 
them  die.  The  mountains  have  a  grand,  stupid,  loveable 


THE    TWO   DOCTORS.  87 

tranquillity ;  the  sea  has  a  fascinating,  treacherous  intelligence. 
The  mountains  lie  about  like  huge  ruminants,  their  broad  backs 
awful  to  look  upon,  but  safe  to  handle.  The  sea  smooths  its 
silver  scales  until  you  cannot  see  their  joints — but  their  shin- 
ing is  that  of  a  snake's  belly,  after  all.  In  deeper  suggestive- 
ness  I  find  as  great  a  difference.  The  mountain  dwarfs  man- 
kind and  foreshortens  the  processions  of  its  long  generations. 
The  sea  drowns  out  humanit}T  and  time  :  it  has  no  sympathy 
with  either,  for  it  belongs  to  eternity,  and  of  that  it  sings  its 
monotonous  song  forever  and  ever. 

"  Yet  I  should  love  to  have  a  little  box  by  the  sea  shore. 
I  should  love  to  gaze  out  on  the  feline  element  from  a  front 
window  of  my  own,  just  as  I  should  love  to  look  out  on  a 
caged  panther,  and  see  it  stretch  its  shining  length,  and  then 
curl  over  and  lap  its  smooth  sides,  and  by-and-by  begin  to 
lash  itself  into  rage  and  show  its  white  teeth  and  spring  at  its 
bars,  and  howl  and  cry  of  its  mad,  but  to  me  harmless  fury. 
And  then, — to  look  at  it  with  the  inward  eye, — who  does  not 
Jove  to  shuffle  off  time  and  its  concerns,  and  at  intervals  to 
forget  who  is  president  and  who  is  governor,  what  race  he  be- 
longs to,  what  language  he  speaks,  which  golden-headed  nail 
of  the  firmament  his  planetary  system  is  hung  upon,  and 
listen  to  the  great  liquid  metronome  as  it  beats  its  solemn 
measure,  steadily  swinging  when  the  solo  or  duet  of  human 
life  began,  and  to  swing  just  as  steadily  after  the  human 
•chorus  has  died  out,  and  man  is  a  fossil  on  its  shores  ?  " 


88  THE    DEATH    OF   DOUGLAS. 


THE  DEATH  OF  DOUGLAS. 


OINCE  the  memorable  "  twenty-fourth  of  October,"  when 
^  all  that  was  mortal  of  the  great  Webster  was  no  more, 
no  public  man  or  private  citizen  has  passed  from  earth  to  his- 
final  rest,  whose  fame  is  more  fully  and  justly  acknowledged, 
and  for  whose  loss  there  is  such  general  and  universal  sorrow. 
The  grief  pervades  every  heart  from  the  counsellors  of  State 
to  the  humblest  of  the  people.  The  departments  of  govern- 
ment put  on  the  emblems  of  mourning,  and  the  humble 
toilers  in  shop  and  field  tearfully  declare  they  "  cannot  work 
to-day,  for  Douglas  is  dead." 

There  was  always  a  charm  about  the  mind  and  person  of 
Mr.  Douglas  that  no  other  man  in  America  possessed ;  and 
a  magic  in  his  name,  even  the  sound  of  which  awakened  the 
echoes  like  the  pibroch  in  the  Highlands.  Yet  till  his  death 
we  did  not  realize  how  much  we  loved  him,  nor  how  the  peo- 
ple relied  on  his  great  intellect  to  devise  the  way  to  bring 
back  peace  to  our  country,  restore  the  union  and  preserve  the 
constitution. 

There  is  to  our  mind  a  wonderful  parallel  between  Mr. 
Douglas  and  Mr.  Webster,  in  all  that  appertains  to  their  early 
life,  personal  history,  intellectual  characteristics,  and  public 
career,  and  especially  so  in  the  vicissitudes  as  well  as  triumphs 
of  public  life — public  censure  as  well  as  public  applause. 
They  were  both  the  type  of  a  class  of  men  peculiar  to  this 
country,  self-dependent  and  self-reliant,  winning  their  success 
by  their  own  mental  energy,  unaided  by  fortune  or  family 
prestige.  The  Senate  of  the  United  States  was  the  field  of 
their  intellectual  dominion  alike.  Providence  allotted,  how- 


THE    DEATH    OF    DOUGLAS.  89 

ever,  to  Mr.  Webster  twenty  years  more  of  life  to  accomplish 
the  plenitude  of  his  fame  than  to  the  illustrious  Douglas. 
The  authorities  of  Boston,  whose  people  had  worshiped  Mr. 
Webster  as  a  god,  barred  the  doors  of  Faneuil  Hall  against 
him  on  his  return  there  after  his  celebrated  speech  in  the  Sen- 
ate upon  the  measures  of  1850.  But  his  reception  there  in 
1853,  when  he  came  home  to  die,  was  a  triumph,  and  the 
portals  of  the  Cradle  of  Liberty,  "on  golden  hinges  turning," 
as  he  expressed  it,  opened  to  him. 

How  like  was  the  reception  of  Mr.  Douglas  at  Chicago  on 
his  return  there,  after  the  passage  of  his  measures  relating  to 
the  territories  in  1854,  when  interrupted  by  a  frenzied  popu- 
lace. And  then,  again,  how  alike  in  all  respects  his  last  recep- 
tion by  that  city  and  people,  when  he,  alas  !  also  came  home 
to  die,  and  that  death  hastened  by  that  last  great  speech  he 
was  forced  to  make  to  those  neighbors  and  friends  whose  idol 
he  was. 

His  last  speeches,  too,  like  those  of  Mr.  Webster,  were 
delivered  while  on  a  triumphal  march  from  a  field  of  intellec- 
tual conquest,  where  for  twenty  years  he  had  battled  for  his 
country,  and  more  recently  in  such  a  conflict  as  the  world 
had  never  before  witnessed  —  a  conflict  single-handed  and 
alone  with  a  hostile  Senate  and  a  traitorous  Cabinet,  seeking 
alike  his  own  and  his  country's  destruction.  But  now  all  is 
over,  and  the  great  Douglas  sleeps  the  sleep  that  knows  no 
waking.  He  has  been  permitted  to  die  at  home,  within  the 
borders  of  his  own  beloved  Illinois,  surrounded  by  family  and 
friends.  In  the  prime  of  life,  but  in  the  fullness  of  his  fame, 
he  has  passed  from  among  the  living,  having  died  the  fore- 
most statesman  of  his  time,  and  the  heart  of  the  nation 
throbs  heavily  at  the  portal  of  his  tomb. 

Webster  reposes  by  the  side  of  that  majestic  ocean  which 
he  loved  so  well.  Douglas'  ashes  find  fitting  rest  in  Cottage 
Grove,  upon  the  shore  of  that  great  inland  sea  whose  mysteri- 
ous "oscillations"  but  typify  the  pulsating  heart  of  a  great 


DO  THE    DEATH    OF    DOUGLAS. 

nation  as  it  bends  over  his  tomb.  A  thousand  years  hence, 
and  so  long  as  civilization  shall  hold  her  dominion  along 
the  shores  of  these  lakes,  and  commerce  follows  her  ancient 
channels,  the  sailor  will  lower  his  flag,  and  the  bell  of  the 
steamer  will  toll  as  they  pass  the  sacred  spot  where  sleeps 
the  great  Douglas. 


THE    RIDDLE    BANQUET.  91 


THE  RIDDLE  BANQUET  * 


TV /T  UCH  pleasure  is  afforded  me  in  the  opportunity  to 
-LV.1  testif}^  my  personal  regard  for  our  distinguished  fellow- 
•citizen,  and  to  participate  with  his  personal  friends  and  neigh- 
bors in  the  festivities  which  are  here  and  now  (1863)  celebrated 
in  his  honor. 

It  ever  has  been  an  impulse  of  my  nature,  when  the  asperi- 
ties of  a  political  campaign,  peculiar  to  our  institutions,  have 
ended,  as  with  me  they  ever  do,  alike  with  defeat  or  with  suc- 
cess, to  rejoice  in  the  personal  advancement  and  honorable 
career  of  political  opponents,  and  especially  those  who  are  of 
my  immediate  neighbors  and  personal  friends. 

I  had  much  more  of  pleasure  than  I  ever  had  opportunity 
to  express,  when  two  years  ago  the  gentleman  who  presides 
here  to-night  (Colonel  R.  C.  Parsons)  was  called  by  the  presi- 
dent to  serve  his  government  and  care  for  the  commercial 
interests  of  his  countrymen,  as  their  consul,  awa}T  beyond  the 
equator,  in  that  great  Spanish- American  empire  of  Brazil, 
which  looks  out  upon  the  Southern  Cross  and  rejoices  in  the 
enlightened  reign  of  Dom  Pedro. 

I  shared  the  general  satisfaction  of  all  our  people  when  the 
Hon.  D.  K.  Cartter  was  made  minister  to  Bolivia,  and  subse- 
quently, when,  after  honorable  and  valuable  service  to  the 
country  abroad,  he  was  made  a  judge  of  the  Federal  court  in 
the  District  of  Columbia.  I  felt  exceedingly  kind  towards 
the  president  when  at  a  later  period  he  called  for  the  services 


*  The  Cleveland  Bar  gave  Hon.  A.  G.  Riddle  a  banquet  at  the 
Kennard  House  prior  to  his  departure  as  consul  to  Cuba. 


92  THE    RIDDLE    BANQUET. 

of  another  of  our  citizens  (Hon.  Win.  Slade)  and  sent  himr 
also  consul,  to  France,  to  the  pleasant  city  of  Nice,  in  a  cozy 
corner  of  that  empire,  where  he  can  look  out  upon  the  dark 
but  genial  and  classic  waters  of  the  Mediterranean,  and  where 
soft  Sicilian  winds  may  bring  repose  to  a  saddened  and 
afflicted  heart. 

And  now,  when  Cleveland's  "  third  consul,"  in  the  person 
of  him  whom  we  this  evening  delight  to  honor,  is  about  to 
be  ordered  to  service  in  the  great  Spanish  province  of  Cuba, 
though  not  to  command  armies  like  the  consuls  of  Rome,  I 
take  much  more  than  ordinary  pride — I  am  gratified  that  a 
position  so  honorable  has  been  conferred  upon  the  first  advo- 
cate of  the  Cleveland  bar — upon  one  who  bore  himself  mod- 
estly, sustained  himself  not  only  well,  but  handsomely,  upon 
the  floor  of  Congress,  and  more  than  all,  who  "  did  the  State 
some  service."  And  whatever  of  diversity  of  opinion  there 
may  be  among  men  arising  from  the  diversit}'  of  political 
aspects  in  which  opinions  are  formed,  I  take  upon  myself  to 
say,  that,  in  my  judgment,  the  brief  congressional  career  of 
our  friend  had  the  merit  of  enlivening  the  halls  of  legislation, 
and  of  bringing  to  the  knowledge  of  the  country  the  fact 
that  Ohio  had  a  Nineteenth  Congressional  district,  and  that 
it  was  ably  represented  —  facts  which  for  ten  years  before 
had  been  consigned  to  the  oblivion  of  the  "lost  arts." 

And  now,  gentlemen,  as  I  am,  as  I  always  have  been,  out  in 
the  cold,  I  intend  to  complain  a  little  of  the  president.  I  can 
afford  to  expose  myself  better  than  you  can,  as  the  president 
expects  many  of  the  gentlemen  present  to  take  and  subscribe 
to  his  new  "iron-clad"  oath.  I  am  not  quite  satisfied  with 
this  appointment,  although  I  am  here  to  do  it  honor.  It  does 
not  come  up  to  that  rare  standard  indicated  by  that  very  novel 
expression,  "the  right  man  in  the  right  place."  I  concede  our 
friend  to  be  the  right  man,  but  Cuba  is  not  quite,  I  humbly 
submit,  the  right  place.  The  president  should  have  appointed 
him  minister  to  Spain.  It  was  due  to  his  talents  and  public 


THE    RIDDLE    BANQUET.  93 

services — and  how  infinitely  more  appropriate  than  the  appoint- 
ment of  the  present  unhappy  and  erratic  embassador  to  the 
Spanish  court.  Who  of  us  would  not  prefer  our  government 
to  be  represented  at  the  court  of  St.  Petersburg  by  our  honor- 
able fellow-citizen,  rather  than  by  a  Simon  Cameron  or  a  rest- 
less, vacillating  and  discontented  Cassius  M.  Clay  ? 

With  but  few  exceptions  Ohio  has  always  been  ably  repre- 
sented in  the  Senate  of  the  United  States,  and  no  State  in  the 
Union  has  had  more  able  and  distinguished  representatives  on 
the  floor  of  the  House,  through  all  administrations  ;  yet  for 
some  singular  reason,  or  none  at  all,  the  highest  positions  in  the 
representation  of  the  country  abroad,  have  been  assumed  and 
secured  by  other  States. 

There  is  not  within  my  personal  or  historical  recollection  a 
single  instance  where  Ohio  has  had  a  first  or  even  a  second 
class  mission  to  a  European  court.  The  best  ever  done  for 
Ohio  in  former  times,  was  to  give  her  the  Brazilian  mission, 
and  later,  Mr.  Corwin,  in  his  old  age,  has  been  consigned  to 
the  itinerant  court  of  Mexico.  But,  generally,  Ohio  men  are 
turned  out  to  grass  in  South  America,  getting  only  the  mis- 
sions to  the  little  mountain  republics  of  Bolivia,  Chili,  Ven- 
ezuela and  Equador,  while  Massachusetts  in  her  modesty  only 
takes  the  court  of  St.  James,  and  about  one-quarter  of  the 
globe,  in  the  mission  to  China. 

While  I  may  be  personally  satisfied  with  this  state  of  things, 
I  have  only  reminded  you  thereof,  so  that  you  may,  if  you 
desire,  call  the  attention  of  the  next  administration  of  Mr. 
Lincoln,  or  Mr.  Chase  to  the  injustice  done  our  great  State  in 
this  respect. 

I  beg  leave  to  submit  as  a  sentiment :  "  The  State  of  Ohio ; 
the  intelligence  of  her  people  and  her  patriotic  devotion  to 
the  Union  entitle  her  to  an  equal  consideration  by  the  execu- 
tive in  the  diplomatic  service  of  the  nation." 


94  MAJOR    LYMAN    C.    THAYER. 


MAJOR  LYMAN  C.  THAYER; 


1\/T R.  PRESIDENT— If  it  would  not  be  deemed  obtrusive. 
*•**•  after  the  remarks  already  made,  I  would  like  to  add  a 
word  of  respect  to  the  honor  and  in  memory  of  our  brother. 
I  first  met  him  in  1845,  at  the  Berkshire  County  Bar  in  Mas- 
sachusetts, where  we  were  about  the  same  time  admitted.  We 
at  that  time  not  unfrequently  congratulated  ourselves  and 
took  a  considerable  degree  of  pride  in  the  fact  that  we  had 
started  professional  life  in  that  grand  romantic  old  county, 
made  famous  for  her  Dwights,  her  Sedgwicks,  her  Sumners, 
her  Bishops,  and  her  Fields.  A  weakness,  pardonable,  per- 
haps, to  the  hopeful  ambition  of  youth. 

The  characteristics  of  Mr.  Thayer  were  ever  the  same : 
energy,  activity  and  enthusiasm.  He  seemed  to  have  busi- 
ness the  very  day  he  wras  admitted.  Tried  his  case  well  to 
the  jury,  was  often  before  legislative  committees  at  Boston, 
and  was  not  timid  in  arguing  cases  in  error  before  Chief  Jus- 
tice Shaw  and  the  court  in  bane,  to  do  which  was  thought  to 
require,  in  a  young  man,  considerable  ability  and  nerve.  In 
politics  he  started  out  a  Democrat,  and  as  such  he  went  into 
the  great  coalition  movement  which  resulted  in  making  the 
political  fortunes  of  Banks,  Boutwell  and  Wilson,  if  nothing 
more.  He  was  alwaj^s  interested,  while  practising  law,  in  pub- 
lic enterprises,  and  with  equal  enthusiasm  would  try  cases, 
prospect  for  an  iron  ore  bed,  open  a  marble  quarry,  or  demon- 
strate, by  figures  and  statistics,  the  practicability  and  value  of 
the  Hoosac  Tunnel.  In  1852  he  emigrated  to  Cleveland,  and 

*  Kemarks  at  a  meeting  of  the  Cleveland  Bar. 


MAJOR    LYMAN    C.    THAYER.  95- 

his  name  came  back  to  me  through  the  papers  as  a  prominent 
actor  and  a  friend  of  the  Lake  Shore  Railroad  lines  in  the 
"War  of  the  Guages"  at  Erie. 

In  1855,  ten  years  from  the  time  we  first  met,  the  course  of 
events  brought  me  to  this  city,  and  it  was  from  him  then,  at 
my  first  looking  in  upon  the  court  and  bar,  in  the  Old  Court 
House  in  the  Square,  that  I  received  my  first  and  pleasant  im- 
pressions of  the  Cleveland  Bar. 

I  had  hardly  learned  the  streets  of  this  city,  much  less  knew 
its  men,  when  he,  after  a  day's  consideration  and  an  evening  to 
arrange  his  satchel,  whizzed  off  by  rail  and  steamer,  across  the 
Isthmus,  to  California.  The  Golden  Gate  was  passed,  and  San 
Francisco,  in  a  very  brief  time,  was  explored  and  its  suburbs 
visited ;  the  Sierra  Nevada  mountains  were  approached.  He 
possessed  himself  of  much  knowledge  of  the  great  gold  fields 
and  other  mineral  regions  ;  learned  much  about  men  and  a 
little  of  almost  everything.  Having  avoided  the  horrors  of 
Deadman's  Bar,  and  escaped  the  pestilence  of  Fever  River,  he 
again  coasted  the  continent  and  returned  home  after  a  lapse  of 
only  a  few  months,  and  was  as  ready  the  next  morning  after 
his  return  to  try  a  case  in  court  as  if  he  had,  all  the  months 
before,  been  preparing  it. 

Scarcely  had  his  wings  rested  from  his  flight  to  the  Pacific 
Ocean,  when,  as  suddenly  and  with  as  little  note  of  prepara- 
tion, he  took  a  Collins  or  a  Cunarder  and  steamed  for  Liver- 
pool. A  suit  was  impending,  wherein  he  was  the  active  and 
efficient  junior  counsel  upon  the  one  side,  involving  the  mys- 
teries  of  the  alliance  of  coal,  and  iron,  and  fire — the  elements 
which  are  destined  to  make  the  city  of  his  adoption  rich  and 
renowned.  He  had  enthusiasm  and  a  genius  for  the  investiga- 
tion, and  he  sought  evidence  in  the  laboratories  of  Birmingham 
and  Leeds, — among  the  iron-mongers  of  England,  whose  an- 
cestors for  three  hundred  years  had  been  iron-mongers  also, — 
and  of  the  blear-eyed  and  swarthy  vulcans  of  those  ancient 


96  MAJOR    LYMAN    C.    THAYER. 

and  renowned  forges.     He  seemed  to  feel  like  one  at  the  great 
Furnace  of  St.  Voltivolde. 

Great  is  Coal,  the  swarthy  hearth-king ! 
Great  is  Iron,  the  dusky  earth-king  ! 
Though  black  as  Ethiops,  they  command 
All  enterprise  on  sea  and  land. 

Coming  home  again,  he  for  a  brief  space  pursues  the  or- 
dinary routine  of  business,  until  the  period  of  that  gloomy 
winter  of  our  nation's  discontent,  the  shocking  and  cruel  re- 
bellion of  1861,  when  we  find  his  eager  and  restless  spirit 
rushing  to  the  service  of  his  country,  collecting  a  regiment  of 
cavalry  and  leading  them  to  the  plains  of  Kansas  ;  and  later 
a  similar  regiment  into  the  department  of  the  Cumberland. 

The  great  crime  against  civilization,  and  the  cruelties  per- 
petrated against  the  border  people  by  those  in  armed  rebel- 
lion against  the  national  authority,  having  their  cause  and 
incentive,  either  immediate  or  remote,  as  he  believed,  in  the 
institution  of  slavery,  had  their  effect  upon  the  quick  and  sus- 
ceptible mind  of  Major  Thayer,  as  they  have  had  upon  many ; 
firing  his  brain  with  that  frenzy  of  poetic  justice,  which 
possessed  the  soul  of  Whittier,  seven  years  before,  in  contem- 
plating the  massacre  of  Southern  Kansas,  and  which  found 
expression  in  the  final  stanza  of  "  Le  Marais  du  Cygne  "- 

Henceforth  to  the  sunset, 

Unchecked  on  her  way, 
Shall  Liberty  follow 

The  march  of  the  day. 

I  have  ever  regarded  his  peculiar  temperament  and  mental 
characteristics  with  a  curious  interest.  That  bright,  quick, 
dark  eye  always  betrayed  the  restlessness  of  his  soul,  and 
though  his  death  is  thought  to  have  been  sudden,  it  was  not 
wholly  unexpected  to  me,  for  their  late  peculiar  brilliancy  had 
more  than  once  suggested  to  me  the  thought  that  the  unquiet 


MAJOR    LYMAN    C.    THAYER.  97 

spirit  within  was  adjusting  its  light  and  brilliant  robes  for  its 
upward  flight. 

His  spirit  now  floats  upon  the  great  cerulean  ocean,  and 
though  his  departure  fills  me  with  more  than  ordinary  sadness, 
the  memory  of  our  friend  is  pleasant. 


98  THE    CELESTIAL    EMBASSADOR. 


THE  CELESTIAL  EMBASSADOR. 


r  I  ^HE  acceptance  by  Anson  Burlingame,  our  late  minister 
^  resident  at  the  court  of  the  empire  of  China,  as  embas- 
sador  of  the  great  Mongolian  kingdom  to  all  the  Western 
Powers  (1868)  presupposes  his  resignation  as  American  min- 
ister, as  the  constitution  does  not  permit  persons  holding  office 
under  our  government  to  accept  and  hold  positions  under 
foreign  governments. 

But  little  is  known  by  the  public  generally  of  the  treaties 
and  official  intercourse  between  our  government  and  China, 
or  of  the  services  performed  by  our  minister  during  his  six 
years'  residence  in  that  country,  but  it  is  fair  to  presume  that 
his  official  intercourse  and  services  have  been  such  as  to  ad- 
vance the  commercial  interests  of  the  United  States,  and  to 
have  won  the  especial  confidence  and  regard  of  the  emperor 
and  authorities  of  that  singular  and  exclusive'  nation.  It 
would  seem  that  the  Chinese  like  our  government  and  are 
pleased  with  the  persons  who  have  thus  far  represented  us, 
commencing  with  Caleb  Gushing,  under  the  administration  of 
John  Tyler,  followed  by  Alexander  H.  Everett,  brother  of  the 
celebrated  Edward  Everett,  and  lastly  by  Mr.  Burlingame — 
and,  singular  to  remark,  all  Massachusetts  men,  living  within 
a  stone's  throw  of  each  other  at  the  "Hub." 

The  great  energy  of  character,  adroitness  and  fascinating 
personal  presence  of  Mr.  Gushing,  of  whom  it  wras  said  by 
Wendell  Phillips,  that  his  death  would  be  like  the  burning  of 
the  Alexandrian  library,  who  broke  the  ice  of  Chinese  diplo- 
macy, and  received  the  first  invitation  to  dine  on  "bird's 
nest"  and  "dog,"  must  have  charmed  the  stolid  and  sus- 


THE    CELESTIAL    EMBASSADOR.  99 

picious  Celestials.  It  was  certainly  suitable  that  he  should  be 
succeeded  by  the  calm,  dignified  and  scholastic  Everett,  to 
impress  them  with  the  high  and  substantial  character  of 
Americans. 

The  great  field  thus  opened  by  Mr.  Burlingame's  predeces- 
sors, and  national  intercourse  firmly  established  between 
America  and  China,  enabled  him  to  reap  rich  diplomatic 
laurels  in  the  Flowery  Kingdom.  Mr.  Burlingame,  personally 
and  socially,  was  by  no  means  an  unworthy  successor  of  his 
distinguished  predecessors,  for  he  has  fine  talents,  is  handsome 
in  person,  and  is  gallant  and  open-hearted,  and  would  easily 
win  the  confidence  of  all  the  Celestials,  from  the  brother  of 
the  sun  to  the  humblest  chopsticks  in  the  rural  regions  of  the 
Chinese  wall.  But  whatever  service  he  may  have  done  this 
country  in  smoothing  the  ways  of  American  commerce  at 
Shanghai,  Canton,  or  the  waters  of  the  Yellow  sea,  he  has 
attained  the  highest  and  most  important  position  known  in 
diplomatic  history.  To  be  at  this  time  an  embassador  from 
the  great  empire  of  Oriental  Asia  to  all  the  powers  of  Europe 
and  the  United  States  is  an  enviable  distinction,  and  we  are 
pleased  that,  of  all  the  diplomats,  resident  at  the  Celestial 
court,  an  American  was  deemed  most  worthy  of  that  special 
mark  of  confidence  and  distinguished  honor. 

The  ancient  highways  of  commerce  and  national  and  con- 
tinental intercourse  have  been  reversed  in  these  latter  days, 
and  the  first  Celestial  embassador  travels  east,  by  way  of  San 
Francisco  and  the  United  States,  to  the  courts  of  the  western 
powers  to  which  he  has  been  accredited.  The  route  of  the 
Indian  ocean,  the  Red  sea  and  the  Mediterranean  has  ceased 
to  be  the  shortest  cut  from  Eastern  China  to  Europe  and  the 
United  States.  When  the  Pacific  railroad  is  completed  the 
Chinese  will  be  at  our  door. 

It  has  occurred  to  us  that,  as  there  is  now  a  vacancy  in  the 
mission  to  China,  the  appointment  should  for  once  be  given 
to  some  gentleman  from  the  West.  We  have  no  recollection 


100  THE    CELESTIAL    EMBASSADOR. 

that  a  first-class  mission  to  the  Old  World  has  ever  been  ten- 
dered to  a  western  man,  except  the  solitary  instance  of  Gen. 
Cass,  many  years  since.  New  England,  we  think,  is  unduly 
pressed  into  the  diplomatic  service,  and  her  sons  ought  to 
have  a  little  rest.  Just  look  at  Massachusetts  :  Adams  at 
St.  James,  and,  until  recently,  Motley  at  Prussia,  and  Burlin- 
game  at  China.  John  P.  Hale,  of  N.  H.,  is  sweating  and 
suffering  at  the  court  of  Spain.  Marsh,  of  Vermont,  in  Italy. 
New  York  has  now  France  and  Russia  in  the  persons  of  Dix 
and  Bancroft. 

The  West  has  no  respectable  mission.  Western  men,  and 
especially  Ohio  men,  are  generally  turned  out  to  grass  in  the 
little  mountain  republics  of  South  America.  There  is,  how- 
ever, no  probability  of  an  Ohio  man  ever  being  minister  to 
China,  for  the  president  has  late!}'  been  making  search  in  this 
State  for  material  for  the  mission  to  Equador,  or  some  such 
place,  and  has  been  unable  to  find  the  talent  and  accomplish- 
ment for  that  rural  court  of  cattle  hides  and  Peruvian  bark, 
except  in  the  person  of  Hon.  Thomas  Ford.  This  mission 
will  probably  be  given  him  if  he  can  be  spared  from  his  pres- 
ent position  at  Washington.  Let  the  witty  and  genial  Tom 
pay  tribute  to  Neptune  and  grapple  with  the  equator  by  all 
means. 


THE    JAPANESE    EMBASSY.  101 


N 


THE  JAPANESE  EMBASSY. 


OW  o'er  Pacific's  placid  main, 
Comes  Iwakura  and  his  train, 
From  where  the  sun,  with  radiant  smile, 
Salutes  great  Niphon's  lordly  isle, 
And  peerless  Fusi  casts  its  shadow 
O'er  the  realm  of  the  Mikado ; 
Whose  sovereign  will  and  high  behest 
Seek  wisdom  of  the  nations  West ; 
Wherein  alone  he  shows  at  least, 
There  still  are  wise  men  in  the  East. 

The  poet,  musing  in  the  gloom, 
By  Judah's  children's  wayside  tomb, 
Was  wont  to  sing  the  sad  refrain, 
"Dead  nations  never  rise  again."* 
But  a  nation  old  and  dormant  lain, 
By  quickening  spirit 's  born  again. 
'T  is  wondrous  grand,  these  guests  of  State, 
Steaming  through  the  Golden  Gate  ; 
But  not  the  first  upon  our  shore, 
The  saffron  race  have  been  before ; 
And  let  not  fancy  judgment  cheat, 
History  doth  itself  repeat. 

Before  the  illustrious  Genoese 
Plowed  the  phosphorescent  seas, 

*  Longfellow's  "Hebrew  Graves." 


102  THE    JAPANESE    EMBASSY. 

Or  Thorfinn  did  the  savans  mock. 
With  Runic  lines  on  Dighton  rock ; 
Or  Vikings  built  the  mystic  mill, 
To  grace  the  grounds  on  Newport  hill 
(Leaving  Fashion  to  build  a  race, 
Knowing  'twould  be  a  watering  place), 
Embassadors  to  our  shores  were  sent, 
From  out  the  mysterious  Orient. 

On  Central  Asia's  verdant  sods, 
Where  once  convened  in  "  Masque"  the  gods  ; 
Beyond  the  Punjaub's  rivers  five. 
Where  swarmed  the  ancient  Aryan  hive, 
The  ethnologist's  piercing  ken 
Discerns  the  Mongol  race  of  men, 
Who  spreading  eastward  far  and  free, 
From  Thibet  to  the  Yellow  Sea  ; 
And  o'er  Corea's  strait  and  strand, 
To  fair  Cipango,  lovely  land. 
Where  rivers  pure  have  icy  fountain, — 
A  crystal  cave  in  the  Peerless  Mountain,* 
Where  they  became,  as  time  did  lapse, 
Primogenitors  of  the  Japs. 

The  first  of  nomads,  ill  at  ease, 
Some  longed  for  lands  beyond  the  seas ; — 
On  circling  islands,  peak  and  ridge, 
They  crossed  the  great  Aleutian  bridge, 
Where  Alaska's  sands  outstretched  to  trace 
First  footprints  of  the  human  race. 
O'er  the  lone  Continent  they  spread, 
With  naught  to  hinder,  none  to  dread, — 
And  thus  the  primal  sires  came  in. 
Of  Inca,  Aztec,  Algonquin. 


*Fusi-Yama — Peerless  Mountain. 


THE    JAPANESE    EMBASSY.  103 

The  earth  itself  is  very  old  ; 
The  ages  that  o'er  man  have  rolled 
By  history  never  have  been  told. 
See  ruined  cities,  temples,  towers, 
Throughout  this  glorious  land  of  ours  ; 
Wondrous  Palenque  puzzles  man, 
In  camwood  forest,  Yucatan. 
For  monuments  seek  not  in  vain — 
Behold  the  tumuli  of  the  plain  ! 

When  the  old  embassadors  came, 
Their  "  reception"  was  rather  tame  ; 
No  President — no  Speaker  Blaine,* 
No  Pullman  cars — no  lightning  train  ; 
No  cities  great — no  grand  "  Revere," 
To  furnish  forth  good  Yankee  cheer ; 
No  genial  poet,  no  Concord  sage — 
The  wit  and  wisdom  of  an  age. 
When  Holmes  and  Emerson  grace  the  treat, 
History  doth  not  itself  repeat.f 

*A  reception  was  given  the  embassy  in  the  Hall  of  the  House  o.f 
Representatives,  Washington. 

tA  banquet  was  given  the  Japanese  party  at  the  Revere  House — 
Boston — at  which  many  distinguished  citizens  assisted. 


104  IN    MEMORIAM MORSE. 


IN  MEMORIAM— MORSE. 


T  T  is  reserved  to  but  few  of  the  great  benefactors  of  the  hu- 
man  race  to  live  out  the  whole  period  of  the  ancient 
allotted  time,  and  to  personally  know  the  full  extent  of  their 
own  just  fame  and  the  public  appreciation  of  the  labors  of 
their  lives. 

Who  would  not  rejoice,  had  it  been  in  the  order  of  nature, 
to  permit  the  fair-faced  boy  Watt  to  live  to  see  with  his  own 
clear  eyes  the  full  development  of  that  power  which  was  des- 
tined to  change  the  face  of  the  world,  which  he  discovered  in 
the  bubbling  evaporations  of  his  mother's  tea  kettle  in  the 
dear  old  Scottish  home ;  to  have  lived  to  see  the  locomotive 
speed  from  London  to  Edinburgh ;  to  traverse  continents  ;  to 
skirt  the  spurs  of  the  Alps  and  plunge  through  the  heart  of 
Mont  Cenis  ;  to  have  beheld  the  leviathan  that  revolves  the 
mighty  shafts  of  the  Great  Eastern  and  turns  the  dark  and 
turbid  waters  of  the  Mersey  into  foam. 

What  American  would  not  feel  a  glow  of  gratitude  in  his 
heart  if  the  sad,  perplexed  and  poverty-hampered  Robert  Ful- 
ton was  here,  even  now  among  us,  in  a  serene  and  satisfied  old 
age,  to  behold  the  development  and  perfection  of  the  ideas 
born  of  his  brain  sixty  years  ago ;  to  have  seen  the  steam 
fleets  of  the  ocean — the  great  Cunarders  bearing  the  names  of 
continents  and  empires  ;  to  behold  the  argonautic  fleets  of  the 
American  Lakes,  the  flanges  of  whose  screws  disturb  the  cold 
deep  waters  of  our  hyperborean  Euxine  for  a  thousand  miles 
to  the  northwest ;  to  know  that  the  little  "Robert  Fulton "  of 
his  paternity,  that  first  rippled  the  waters  of  his  own  beauti- 
ful Hudson,  was  the  father  of  a  race  of  giant  steamers,  to-day 


IN    MEMORIAM  —  MORSE.  105 

gliding  over  all  the  great  rivers  of  the  world  ;  the  Mississippi, 
the  Amazon,  the  Nile,  the  Danube,  the  sacred  Ganges  and  the 
wonderful  rivers  of  China  ;  that  the  Turcoman  and  Tartar  are 
as  familiar  with  steamers  upon  the  once  mysterious  Caspian 
Sea,  as  citizens  upon  the  borders  of  our  own  lakes  ;  to  feel 
the  pride  that  comes  of  unselfishness  and  magnanimity  in  the 
reflection  that  his  conceptions  and  genius  had  resulted  not 
only  in  conferring  a  lasting  benefit  to  the  world,  but  in 
achieving  the  fortunes  and  renown  of  the  Lloyds  and  Lairds 
of  England,  and  the  Aspinwalls,  the  Vanderbilts  and  Drews 
of  America,  who  are  but  eminent  examples  of  many  ? 

It  is  a  subject  for  profoundest  gratitude  that  Heaven  so 
bounteously  lengthened  out  the  life  of  Samuel  F.  B.  Morse, 
the  Nestor  of  Inventors,  that  he  was  enabled  to  realize,  in  a 
genial  and  happy  old  age,  the  full  measure  of  earthly  honors 
and  fame. 

The  invention  of  the  Electric  Telegraph  ;  the  subduing  of 
the  most  subtle  element  in  nature,  least  understood  in  his 
early  day,  to  the  uses  of  man  ;  consigning  thought  of  time 
and  distance  to  the  realms  of  forgotten  things  in  the  diplo- 
matic and  commercial  intercourse  of  the  world,  must  rank,  as 
it  now  does,  for  a  hundred  generations,  as  the  highest  achieve- 
ment of  the  genius  of  man — answering  fully  and  affirmatively 
the  inquiry  propounded  to  the  man  of  Uz  from  out  of  the 
whirlwind  :  "  Canst  thou  send  lightnings,  that  they  may  go, 
and  say  unto  thee  :  l  Here  we  are  ? ' '  More  wonderful  and 
abiding  than  Karnak  or  the  Pyramids,  it  will  remain  for  the 
uses  of  man  when  Macaulay's  traveler  from  New  Zealand 
shall  stand  upon  the  broken  arch  of  London  bridge  to  sketch 
the  ruins  of  St.  Paul's. 

He  has  given  unto  nations  to  speak  to  nations  in  a  breath, 
and  unto  man  to  hold  converse  with  man  in  the  extremes  of 
the  earth  as  in  a  parlor.  And  to  the  merchant  of  San 
Francisco,  who  sends  westward  to  Calcutta  his  ship,  to  be 
advised  of  her  arrival,  by  wa}r  of  London  and  New  York,  the 


106  IN   MEMORIAM  —  MORSE. 

instant  her  master  drops  anchor  among  the  crocodiles  in  the 
Hoogly  of  the  Ganges.  Fortunate  above  most  men  of  genius 
in  his  colleagues  and  coadjutors,  he  found  in  such  men  as 
Cornell,  and  Wade,  and  Field,  and  their  associates,  the  faith, 
the  talent  and  energetic  devotion,  which  stretched  the  wires 
over  continents  and  under  oceans,  resulting,  even  beyond 
their  expectations  or  hopes,  in  princety  fortunes  and  the 
honors  that  come  of  great  enterprises  well  achieved,  and 
which  they  wear  so  gracefully  and  so  well.  His  genius 
•created  a  new  department  of  industry,  and  called  into  an 
attractive  service,  in  every  civilized  country,  an  accomplished 
class  of  men — electricians,  inventors,  operators — second  only 
in  extent  to  the  great  railroad  corps  of  America  and  Europe. 

It  was  fitting  that  he  should  have  had  the  rare  felicity  of 
living  to  see  a  great  city  adorn  the  brow  of  her  adopted  child 
in  the  erection  of  his  own  graceful  statue.  And  it  was  a 
beautiful  conception,  thoughtfully  and  wisely  executed  in 
that  last  great  tableau  which  gave  the  people  their  final  view 
of  the  great  electrician,  as  he  himself  was  about  to  pass 
•"within  the  veil,"  when  he  was  selected  to  unfold  the  silken 
banner  and  point  them  to  the  statue  of  him  who  drew  down 
lightnings  from  heaven. 

Beautiful  above  all,  that  he  had  so  lived  towards  man  and 
God  that,  when  the  summons  came,  he  could  go  as  one  who 
"  wraps  the  drapery  of  his  couch  about  him  and  lies  down  to 
pleasant  dreams." 


THE    CAUSE.  107 


THE  CAUSE/ 


T 


HE  summer  sun's  unwonted  glare 
Disturbed  the  elemental  air  ; 
And  counter  winds  dark  clouds  threw  back, 
And  zig-zag  lightning  flew  the  track  ; 
The  thunder's  crash  in  circles  ran, 
Like  Prussian  siege-guns  round  Sedan. 
The  wire's  fleet  messenger  seemed  distressed, 
As  child  no  more  loy  father  blest, 
And  "calling"  at  the  electric  stand, 
It  missed  one  fond,  caressing  hand. 
In  a  vision  sweet,  we  asked  one  night, 
Of  the  majestic  Borean  light, 
The  cause  of  this  commotion  rare, 
In  the  upper  regions  of  the  air. 
Aurora  said,  advancing  high 
Her  gorgeous  banner  'gainst  the  sky  : 
"  If  you  the  cause  would  know  aright, 
Gro  ask  the  Lightning  in  its  flight — 
An  answer  quickly  it  will  write." 
The  Telegraph's  low  whisper  said, 
The  electric  master,  Morse,  is  dead  ! 


*  The  summer  of  1872,  following  the  death  of  Professor  Morse,  was 
noted  for  unusual  meteorological  phenomena,  telegraphic  disturban- 
ces and  terrific  thunder,  preceded  by  intensely  vivid  and  fearfully 
destructive  lightning,  throughout  the  United  States  and  Europe. 


108  EIGHTEEN    HUNDRED    SEVENTY-ONE. 


EIGHTEEN  HUNDRED  SEVENTY-ONE. 


W 


E  note  the  year's  disasters  dire, 
That  came  of  water,  steam  and  fire ; 
How  iron  giants  on  tracks  of  steel, 
Crushed  life  and  hopes  beneath  the  wheel. 
Events  that  followed  fast  and  faster, 
Of  the  Westfield's  great  disaster ; 
Of  tears  that  flow  and  hearts  that  break 
For  dearest  dead  that  ne'er  shall  wake 
From  fair  Chautauqua's  silver  lake.* 

A  wail  from  the  land  where  Lincoln  sleeps  ! 
And  man  and  child  and  woman  weeps. 
A  thrilling  click  !  and  along  the  wires, 
Proclaims  the  messenger  that  never  tires, 
How  fire  swooped  up  like  snow  in  flakes, 
And  swept  the  Venice  of  the  Lakes. 
Oh,  woe  supreme  !  Oh,  horrors  dread  ! 
Chicago's  wealthy  daughters  cry  for  bread  ! 
Another  click  !  a  message  hurled 
In  "  forty  minutes  "  round  the  world ! 
From  Europe's  kings  and  kaisers'  hearts, 
From  Riga  and  Odessa's  marts, 
From  Rocky  Mountain's  sloping  side, 
Wh^re  richest  valleys  stretch  in  pride, 
To  meet  the  broad  Pacific's  tide ; 
Wherever  smoke  of  cottage  curled, 
A  strange  sad  cry  the  tempest  whirled — 

*  Death  of  Mr.  Dan  P.  Eells'  daughter,  and  her  teacher,  from  steam- 
boat disaster. 


EIGHTEEN    HUNDRED    SEVENTY-ONE.  109 

Pood  !  food  !  for  the  Granary  of  the  World  ! 
This  lesson's  taught  which  soothes  the  smart ; 
When  the  fiend  of  fire  lets  fly  his  dart, 
The  human  race  has  a  single  heart. 
Still  the  cry  goes  up  from  every  State — 
The  modern  Tyre  is  "desolate  ! " 

And  quickly  speeds  the  tale  of  woe, 

Prom  Manistee  and  Peshtigo. 

Bleak  Norway's  sons  in  manhood's  prime, 

Left  the  long  shadows  of  their  native  pine 

For  the  genial  land  of  the  corn  and  wine  ; 

And  blue-eyed  daughters  from  that  Eden 

Where  sang  the  Nightingale  of  Sweden, 

And  Linnaeus,  boy,  'mid  garden  bowers, 

Found  delight  and  fame  among  the  flowers, 

And  Teutons  brave  from  castled  Rhine, 

Where  in  childhood's  home  beneath  the  vine 

The}^  listened  to  the  legends  weird 

Of  the  costal  cave  of  Rossenbeard ;  * 

'Mid  classic  art  had  revelled  oft 

In  pictured  halls  of  Dusseldorf ; 

And  loved  and  sung  in  happy  glee 

In  Thuringia's  dells — by  Zuyder  Zee  ; 

And  Belgia's  sons,  whose  feet  had  trod 

The  delta  plain — the  sacred  sod, 

The  field  of  Mars  that  France  went  through — 

Agincourt,  Cressy,  Waterloo ; 

All  braved  the  iceberg,  crossed  the  main, 

To  die  by  fire  on  a  western  plain ! 

Amid  the  ruin  and  desolation  dire, 

Shall  lighted  souls,  with  aspirations  higher, 

Scoff  the  Zeus  of  the  Greek — the  Persian's  god  of  Fire  ? 

*  Frederick  Barbarossa,  Redbeard,  Emperor  of  the  ancient  German 
Empire,  died  in  Asia  in  the  Crusade,  A.  D.  1190. 


110       COL.  MILLER  AND  THE  SWORD  OF  BYRON. 


COL.  MILLER  AND  THE  SWORD  OF  BYRON. 


TN  his  admirable  history  of  the  "Rise  and  Fall  of  the  Slave 
•*•  Power  in  America,"  Henry  Wilson  has  rescued  from 
oblivion  and  embalmed,  in  the  pages  of  permanent  history, 
the  names  of  many  noble  men  and  women  whose  lives  went 
out  in  the  early  days  of  the  great  thirty  years'  conflict,  leav- 
ing to  others  the  dangers  and  honors  of  the  field,  and  the 
glories  of  the  victory  which  culminated  in  the  Proclamation 
of  Emancipation. 

One  of  the  many  of  'whom  the  historian  has  made  honor- 
able mention,  is  Jonathan  P.  Miller,  of  Vermont.  His  voice 
had  been  heard  in  behalf  of  the  enslaved  and  of  freedom  of 
speech  even  before  Garrison  had  passed  the  ordeal  of  the 
Boston  mob,  or  Lovejoy  had  been  hunted  like  a  partridge  on 
the  mountain,  and  his  children  made  fatherless  and  his  wife  a 
widow.  The  writer  knew  him  personally  forty  years  ago,  as 
a  boy  may  know  a  man.  Dressed  in  a  semi-Quaker  garb,  his 
slightly  rotund  form  and  fine  personal  presence  reminded  one 
of  the  old  picture  of  William  Penn,  in  the  Philadelphia 
treaty,  under  the  great  elm  tree.  Generous,  sympathetic  to 
human  sorrows,  he  had,  besides,  a  healthy  hate  of  tyranny 
and  its  manifold  wrongs,  and  was  as  chivalrous  as  Bayard,, 
and,  like  him,  without  fear  and  without  reproach.  Mrs. 
Stowe  said  of  Wendell  Phillips  that  he  could  meet  scorn 
with  superior  scorn.  Col.  Miller  could  oppose  the  wrath  of  a 
mob  with  superior  wrath.  A  writer  in  his  own  beautiful 
valley  of  the  Winooski  suggests  the  influence  that  inspired 
his  soul : 


COL.    MILLER    AND    THE    SWORD    OF    BYRON.  Ill 

Beareth  the  mountain-breeze  a  spell  ? 
Aye,  tyrants  long  have  known  it  well  ; 
The  home  of  Hofer— that  of  Tell, 

The  land  of  loch  and  glen, 
Bear  witness  that,  from  cliff  and  crag, 
Streams  first  and  last  the  freeman's  flag, 

And  mountains  nurture  men. 

When,  in  1821,  the  Greeks  declared  their  independence, 
and  took  up  arms  against  the  Sultan  of  Turkey,  Miller  was  a 
student  in  the  University  of  Vermont,  and,  in  common  with 
all  Americans,  sympathized  with  the  Hellenic  cause;  and 
when,  in  1823,  the  news  came  of  the  fall  of  the  brave 
leader  of  the  Suliotes,  in  the  midnight  attack  upon  the 
Turkish  camp  at  Karpinisi,  and  Fitz  Green  Halleck  electrified 
the  country  with  his  "Marco  Bozzaris,"  so  familiar  to  all  for 
fifty  years,  the  soul  of  Miller  was  fired. 

At  midnight,  in  his  guarded  tent, 

The  Turk  was  dreaming  of  the  hour 
When  Greece,  her  knee  in  suppliance  bent, 

Should  tremble  at  his  power. 

A  cry  came  over  the  sea  for  food  and  clothing  for  Greek 
mothers  and  children.  The  public  response  was  prompt  and 
generous ;  ships  were  laden,  and  Miller  was  selected  as  one  to- 
accompany  Dr.  Samuel  G.  Howe  to  Greece,  in  charge  of  the 
supplies.  Dr.  Howe,  then  a  young  surgeon  of  Boston,  of 
most  chivalrous  spirit  and  marked  abilities,  after  accomplish- 
ing his  special  mission,  not  only  rendered  important  services 
to  the  Greek  army  professionally,  but  fought  personally 
against  Ibrahim  Pasha  of  Egypt  and  the  armies  of  the 
Sultan,  and  had  the  honor  of  being  a  prisoner  of  war  in  a 
Turkish  fortress  in  the  Island  of  Crete. 

*•*•**#*##*•** 
Miller,  having  successfully  fulfilled  his  mission,  and  ren- 
dered, other  noble  service  to  freedom,   left  Missolonghi,   in 
Western  Greece,  which  had  been  his  depot  and  headquarters., 


112  COL.    MILLER    AND    THE    SWORD    OF    BYRON. 

and  visited  Athens;  stood  upon  Mars  Hill,  where  Pericles, 
Demosthenes,  and  Paul,  had  spoken  might}'  words  in  olden 
time ;  conversed  with  the  lady  immortalized  as  "  Maid  of 
Athens ; "  visited  the  pass  of  Thermopylae,  and  the  historic 
battle-field  where 

The  mountains  look  on  Marathon, 
Marathon  on  the  sea. 

Such  visits  were  less  common  then  than  now.  Lord  Byron, 
who  had  finished  the  wanderings  of  Childe  Harold,  and  had 
drawn  the  sword  for 

The  isles  of  Greece,  the  isles  of  Greece, 
Where  burning  Sappho  loved  and  sunjr, 

had  died  at  Missolonghi  in  1824.  and  Miller  became  possessed 
of  many  souvenirs  of  the  noble  poet,  and  among  them  his 
sword. 

While  at  Athens,  Madame  Miltiades  became  known  to  him. 
She  belonged  to  one  of  the  historic  families,  and  her  husband, 
who  had  been  an  officer  in  the  patriot  army,  and  had  fallen 
with  Bozzaris  in  the  early  part  of  the  war,  was  conceded  to 
have  been  a  lineal  descendant  of  the  renowned  Miltiades  of 
Marathon.  Being  thus  widowed,  her  children  fatherless,  and 
the  family  fortunes  ruined  by  the  spoliations  of  the  Turks 
and  the  calamities  of  war,  she  consented  to  the  adoption  by 
Col.  Miller  and  another  American  gentleman,  of  her  two 
handsome,  dark-e}'ed  boys,  of  the  respective  ages  of  about 
five  and  seven  years. 

It  may  seem  a  little  surprising  that  name  and  blood  should 
be  traced  and  acknowledged  in  a  family  for  more  than  twenty- 
three  hundred  years ;  but  the  roots  of  the  ancestral  tree  run 
deeper  into  the  soil  of  history  in  Athens  and  Rome  than  in 
our  new  country.  There  they  are  traced  through  the  whole 
period  of  authentic  history,  and  lost  only  in  the  mythical 
regions  of  untold  time.  Florence  has  still  the  name  and 


COL.    MILLER    AND    THE    SWORD    OF    BYRON.  113 

Tblood  of  the  Vespucii,  and  not  many  years  since  the  ancient 
house  was  represented  here  in  the  person  of  Madame  Ves- 
pucia,  who  came  to  visit  the  land  named  for  her  ancestor 
Americus,  nearly  four  hundred  years  ago.  The  Duchess 
D'Abrantes,  Madame  Junot,  the  wife  of  Napoleon's  great 
officer,  was  a  Comnenes,  whose  family  records  united  her 
house  with  the  Byzantine  Emperor  of  that  name,  and  his 
more  celebrated  relative,  the  historian  Anna  Comnena,  cotem- 
porary  with  the  first  Crusade. 

Col.  Miller  brought  home  the  two  boys,  adopting  the 
younger,  Luke — the  older  one  eventually  going  to  his  new 
home  in  New  York.  The  brothers  were  both  well  cared  for, 
and  educated  for  business — the  older  becoming,  in  time,  a 
merchant  in  New  York,  and  the  other  a  banker  in  a  Western 
State.  Some  time  after  his  return  from  Greece,  Miller  mar- 
ried a  lad}^  of  fortune,  and  devoted  his  rather  brief  life  to 
the  law,  at  the  Montpelier  bar,  and  to  the  cares  of  a  large 
estate.  Had  he  lived  he  would  have  been  prominent  in  his 
•State  and  in  the  political  affairs  of  the  country,  as  events 
were  shaped  some  years  after  his  death ;  but,  while  he  lived, 
his  opinions  and  sentiments  were  too  far  in  advance  of  his  time 
to  be  adopted  by  either  of  the  two  great  political  parties  then 
existing. 

The  writer  remembers,  when  a  lad,  to  have  been  one  day 
with  the  little  Greek  boy  in  Col.  Miller's  library,  where  he  was 
showing  some  gentlemen  the  souvenirs  of  his  Greek  mission, 
among  them  the  sword  of  Byron,  and  some  Greek  manu- 
scripts, ancient  and  modern.  While  the  gentlemen  were 
examining  the  documents,  the  little  boy  took  up  the  sword, 
and  drawing  it  from  the  scabbard,  brandished  it  over  me. 
But  the  strength  of  his  little  arm  not  being  equal  to  the 
weight  of  the  weapon,  it  descended  in  dangerous  proximity 
to  my  head,  which  alarmed  the  Colonel,  and  he  arose  and 
gently  took  it  from  his  hand,  saying :  "  My  son,  it  is  written 
that  he  who  taketh  the  sword  shall  perish  by  the  sword." 


114  COL.    MILLER    AND    THE    SWORD    OF    BYRON. 

Extreme  youth,  and  the  fright  consequent  upon  the  danger- 
ous proceeding,  did  not  permit  of  any  sentiment  arising  from 
the  thought  that  the  sword  of  Byron  had  been  waved  over 
my  head  by  one  who  bore  the  name,  and  in  whose  veins 
coursed  the  blood  of  Miltiades  of  Marathon. 

A  few  days  after  the  burning  of  Chicago,  the  writer  received 
from  a  lady,  near  Col.  Miller's  old  home,  a  letter  reciting  some 
incidents  of  that  terrible  calamity,  with  the  following  con- 
clusion :  "  Mrs.  K.,  whom  you  may  remember  as  the  daughter 
of  Col.  Miller,  saved  from  her  elegant  residence  only  a  box 
of  plate,  the  shawl  she  threw  over  her  head,  and  the  sword  of 
Byron  ! "  Not  a  bad  outfit  for  a  lady  compelled  to  fly  in  her 
night-dress.  I  am  glad  she  saved  the  sword  that  Greece 
need  before  this  age  goes  by. 

"  I  was  in  Athens  on  a  bright  day  close, 
And  heard  the  wail  that  round  her  temples  rose : 
'  Byron  is  dead,'— the  worshipped,  the  deplored  ! 
I  seemed  to  hear  the  falling  of  a  sword, 
A  paean  closing  on  a  broken  chord, 
And  England's  lyre  slept  with  its  fallen  lord." 


A    LEGEND   OF    DAMASCUS.  115 


A  LEGEND  OF  DAMASCUS. 


HP  HE  melting  snows  on  Hermon's  crest 
-*•    Go' trickling  down  its  eastern  slope, 
And  in  the  valley  distant  far 
Is  born  Abana  and  Pharpar, 
Whose  waters  glide  through  reed  and  brake. 
Seeking  El  Margi's  lonely  lake. 

The  streams  now  born  of  mountain  rill, 
So  pure  and  gentle,  clear  and  still, 
Had  virtues  once  for  human  ill, — 
Those  winding  threads  of  silver  sheen, 
Had  beauties  rare  as  e'er  were  seen. 
The  leprous  Naaman,  stern  and  brave, 
Disdained  the  seer's  advice,  to  lave, 
In  sacred  Jordan's  dusky  wave  ; 
Declared  his  native  waters  still 
Better  than  all  of  Israel. 

Within  that  beauteous  S}Trian  vale, 
Along  an  old  and  ancient  trail, 
Where  meek-eyed  camels  westward  sent, 
First  bore  the  gems  of  Orient  ; 
And  Persians  grave,  from  Ispahan, 
Were  wont  to  rest  the  caravan, 
And  smoke  the  pipe  of  fragrant  balm  ; 
'Neath  cooling  shade  of  lordly  palm, 
Stands  old  Damascus — antique  town, 
Hoary  with  age  and  great  renown. 


116  A   LEGEND    OF   DAMASCUS. 

Within  its  pondrous  western  gate, 
Just  beside  "  the  street  called  straight," 
Hard  by  a  brook  within  a  gorge, 
Once  stood  a  grim  and  dusky  forge, 
Where  keenest  sabre  first  was  made, — 
The  world-renowned  Damascus  blade. 

Of  subtile  temper,  proved  by  ring. 
And  a  quick  elastic  spring  ; 
Arching  true  as  serpent's  joint. 
Point  to  hilt  and  hilt  to  point ; 
'T  would  with  a  twang,  as  back  it  flew, 
Come  straight  again  as  arrow  true ; 
Then  tossing  upward  in  the  air, 
The  kerchief  of  some  lady  fair, 
Of  finest  threads  of  gossamer, 
With  edge  as  keen  as  Sheffield  razor, 
Before  the  Court  and  ever}T  gazer, 
A  knight,  without  an  effort  vain, 
Would  cut  the  fabric  clean  in  twain  ! 

An  Eastern  legend  doth  relate,* 
How  Syria's  king,  within  the  gate, 
Commanded  Vulcan,  nothing  bate 
In  finest  steel  or  cutler's  skill, 
But  prompt  obey  his  sovereign  will. 
To  make  a  sword  for  service  great, 
Worthy  of  his  royal  state. 

In  naught  of  duty  could  he  swerve, 
But  trembling  in  his  every  nerve, 
He  wrought  a  blade  of  beauteous  curve — 
Made  hilt  and  guard  and  handle  grand, 


*  Wendell  Phillips  in  "Lost  Arts." 


A    LEGEND    OF    DAMASCUS.  117 

Fitting  for  the  royal  hand. 
One  single  act,  fame  to  acquire, 
'T  was  placed  to  temper  in  the  fire. 
That  moment,  anxious  most  of  all, 
The  foe  came  thundering  'gainst  the  wall ; 
The  king  rushed  in  with  furious  ire, 
And  caught  the  sabre  from  the  fire  ; 
And  gleaming  hot,  in  grand  array, 
Flourished  the  weapon  in  the  fray. 

The  affrighted  Vulcan  stood  dismayed, 
Because  of  the  untemper'd  blade  ; 
Expecting  naught  in  anxious  dread, 
But  loss  of  fame  and  loss  of  head. 
Exulting,  soon  the  king  returned, 
Proclaimed  the  victory  he  had  earned  ; 
Declared,  on  faith  of  royal  word, 
The  mystic  virtues  of  the  sword. 
And  thus  'twas  found  by  chemists  rare, 
That  steel  is  tempered  by  the  air. 

This  ancient  sword  to  both  allied, 
First  Bower  and  Justice  typified  ; 
When  Solomon,  in  all  his  glory, 
Sat  first  in  judgment — heard  the  story, 
And  the  humble  mother's  cry  ; 
And  Evidence  did  Truth  defy, — 
"Bring  me  a  sword,"  said  Israel's  king, 
And  quickly  they  the  sword  did  bring ; 
And  thus  invoked  the  goddess  smiled 
On  the  true  mother  of  the  child  ; 
And  ever  since  whate'er  avails, 
She  holds  the  Sceptre  with  the  Scales. 

When  lovely  Esther  led  the  van, 
In  the  palace  of  Shushan, 


118  A    LEGEND    OF    DAMASCUS. 

Pleading  for  her  Hebrew  race, 
With  her  beauteous  form  and  face, 
Winning  Ahasuerus'  grace  ; 
The  symbol  of  that  mighty  Po'wer 
That  swept  from  Ethiope  to  Indus  ; 
The  sceptre  held  out  to  the  maid, 
Was  a  golden-hilt  Damascus  blade. 

But  a  shadow  dark  rests  on  its  fame, 
It  ne'er  was  drawn  in  Freedom's  name  ; 
And  turbaned  Turk  hath  with  it  smote 
The  patriot  Crete  and  Suliote  ; 
And^all  the  world  deplores  the  loss — 
It  held  the  Crescent  'gainst  the  Cross. 


GENERAL    MOSBY    AND    SPEAKER    ELAINE.  119 


GENERAL  MOSBY  AND  SPEAKER  ELAINE. 


13  Y  the  courtesy  of  the  Speaker,  Mosby,  the  guerrilla,  the 
partisan  chief,  the  franc,  tireur  of  the  late  war,  has  been 
honored  with  a  seat  upon  the  floor  of  the  national  House  of 
Representatives. 

The  writer  hereof  feels  disinclined  to  begrudge  the  famous 
chieftain  whatever  of  honor  he  may  conceive  it  to  be  to  him  to 
meet  face  to  face  the  representatives  of  the  people,  or  to  cant 
at  the  gracious  courtesies  of  Mr.  Speaker  Blaine.  In  fact  we 
rather  feel  kindly  toward  this  once  terrible  and  dreaded 
guerrilla  for  giving  us  about  three-quarters  of  an  hour  to  get 
out  of  his  way. 

In  the  month  of  May,  1864,  came  the  news  of  the  second 
great  conflict  in  the  "Wilderness,"  and  the  deplorable  loss 
•sustained  by  the  Ohio  regiments.  Immediately  upon  the 
receipt  thereof  the  writer  received  an  order  from  Governor 
Brough  to  accompany  several  citizens  to  that  field  to  look 
especially  after,  and  to  supply,  as  far  as  possible,  the  temporary 
wants  of  our  wounded  men,  and  for  that  purpose  to  draw 
upon  the  State  agent  at  Washington  for  whatever  might  be 
deemed  necessary. 

We  reached  Fredericksburg  on  the  16th  of  May  at  sunset. 
It  had  been  a  ruined  and  riddled  city  since  the  great  contest 
and  final  repulse  of  Burnside.  A  bright,  full  moon  looked 
down  upon  a  ruined  city,  untenanted  by  its  original  inhabi- 
tants and  unoccupied,  except  by  seven  thousand  wounded 
Union  soldiers,  lying  upon  the  floors  of  gloomy  tobacco 
warehouses,  churches,  banking  houses,  law  offices,  and  in  the 
parlors  and  halls  of  the  forsaken  mansions  of  late  opulent 


120  GENERAL    MOSBY    AND    SPEAKER    ELAINE. 

and  distinguished  families.  Ambulances  from  the  Wilder- 
ness, seven  to  ten  miles  distant,  which  had  kept  up  their 
steady  and  continuous  train  from  the  first  day  of  the  battle, 
had  not  ceased  to  come  each  with  its  two  wounded  and 
mangled  men,  and  our  first  night  was  one  of  strange  and 
mingled  experiences  and  lasting  impressions.  Being  there  in 
pursuance  of  our  mission,  we  visited  these  various  buildings 
to  relieve,  comfort  and  assist  Ohio's  wounded  men.  One 
scene  we  here  note  :  In  going  into  the  Fredericksburg  Bank 
Building,  which  had  been  dismantled  of  its  counters  and 
desks,  and  disrobed  of  all  the  paraphernalia  of  the  money 
changers,  and  those  who  in  former  days  were  wont  to  discount 
the  paper  given  in  payment  for  men,  women  and  children,  as 
well  as  cotton  and  tobacco,  we  saw  a  stately  woman  with  fine 
head  and  distinguished  features,  moving  among  rows  of  men 
stretched  upon  the  floor,  some  armless,  some  legless,  others 
with  shattered  limbs  or  mangled  bodies,  contused  heads  or 
lacerated  breasts,  who  seemed  to  be  not  only  president, 
cashier,  teller  and  capital  of  the  bank,  but  surgeon,  nurse, 
steward,  comforter,  friend,  sanitary  commission  and  soldiers' 
aid  society  combined  in  a  single  person.  That  woman  was 
Mrs.  Jane  Gr.  Swisshelm,  so  well  known  as  one  of  the  noblest 
and  best  of  women,  and  one  of  the  ablest  and  most  interest- 
ing writers  of  the  day.  No  one  can  tell  how  thoroughly  she 
was  appreciated  by  those  to  whom  she  ministered.  She 
inspired  those  who  saw  her  there  with  the  most  profound 
respect  and  reverence. 

In  a  few  days  a  fleet  of  transports  came  up  the  river,  and 
all  these  seven  thousand  men  were  placed  on  board,  destined 
for  the  hospital  in  Washington.  Then  the  army  base  was 
changed  and  Fredericksburg  was  abandoned.  Our  mission 
was  thus  concluded.  Ten  miles  south  of  Fredericksburg, 
between  the  Ny  and  the  Po,  with  Spottsylvania  Court  House 
in  sight  on  the  right  and  Essex  Junction  on  the  left,  rested 
for  a  day  the  great  army  of  the  Potomac.  The  writer  on  a 


GENERAL  MOSBY  AND  SPEAKER  ELAINE.       121 

sultry  morning  started,  in  company  with  Dr.  Elisha  Sterling, 
of  Cleveland,  without  pass  or  protection,  and  on  foot,  for 
head-quarters.  It  was  a  risky  undertaking,  but  to  be  within 
ten  miles  and  not  make  an  effort  to  see  some  portion  of  the 
great  army,  the  thought  was  not  to  be  tolerated.  Hundreds 
of  army  wagons  were  filing  across  the  plains,  but  heavily 
loaded — no  chance  to  ride.  New  regiments  were  constant^ 
moving  to  the  front,  but  we  were  alone,  not  belonging  to  any 
established  organization.  We  Had  hardly  got  beyond  the 
limits  of  the  town  before  we  were  "interviewed"  at  the  point 
of  a  baj^onet.  The  doctor  talked  knives,  saws,  lint,  bandages, 
and  we  were  permicted  to  pass  on,  reaching  the  rear  of  the 
army  about  3  o'clock  p.  m.  We  passed  without  challenge  or 
molestation  the  quarters  of  General  Grant,  whom  we  saw 
smoking  in  front  of  his  tent,  erected  just  on  the  edge  of  a 
forest.  An  observatory,  about  forty  feet  high,  built  of  fence 
rails,  stood  in  the  open  field  near  by,  upon  which  officers  were 
making  observations  with  the  glass  and  communicating  with 
the  little  man  with  the  cigar. 

Here,  upon  a  broad  plain,  slightly  descending  towards  a 
stream,  we  saw  about  forty  thousand  of  the  center  of  that 
mighty  army  whose  wings  extended  many  miles  to  right  and 
left.  They  stood  at  that  moment  motionless,  with  their 
bright  guns  glistening  in  the  sun.  Hardly  had  we  compre- 
hended this  grand  spectacle,  when  the  dull,  heavy  sound  "of 
cannon  was  heard  in  our  rear,  and  apparently  on  the  ground 
we  had  but  recently  passed  over  alone.  Instantly  several 
thousand  of  the  army  before  us  deployed  to  the  right,  and 
then  passed  over  at  a  rapid  march  in  the  direction  of  the 
cannonading,  and  soon  passed  beyond  our  observation.  Can- 
non boomed  till  dark.  Mosby  had  made  a  dash  and  seized  the 
supply  train  at  a  point  in  the  road  over  which  we  had  but  just 
come  less  than  an  hour  before.  That  night  the  ambulances 
brought  in  several  hundred  wounded  men — fifteen  hundred 
had  been  killed ;  but  things  were  on  so  large  a  scale  that  the 


122  GENERAL    MOSBY    AND    SPEAKER    ELAINE. 

little  episode  was  only  alluded  to  as  a  little  skirmish  with 
Mosby.  That  was  a  night  spent  in  the  field  hospital,  sad, 
solemn  and  dreadful.  A  large  corps  of  surgeons  worked  all 
night  at  the  amputating  table,  and  legs  and  arms,  feet  and 
hands,  severed  from  their  bodies,  strewed  the  ground.  One 
young  and  handsome  officer,  captain  of  a  company  of  the 
Boston  heavy  artillery,  as  he  was  lifted  to  the  surgeon's 
table  for  the  amputation  of  a  dangling  arm  or  shattered  leg, 
said,  as  he  was  about  to  inhale  the  chloroform,  "My  God,  and 
my  mother,  do  you  know  that  I  have  come  to  this  ?  " 

Had  we  been  less  than  an  hour  later  on  the  road  and  in 
company  with  the  train  which  we  had  preceded,  the  same 
fate  or  worse  might  have  been  ours. 

Dr.  Sterling  lent  his  skillful  surgical  aid  to  the  field  sur- 
geons, which  was  gracefully  accepted  by  them,  and  appointed 
the  writer  upon  his  personal  staff,  with  the  imaginary  rank  of 
assistant  surgeon,  with  the  pay  of  a  corporal  of  militia  in 
time  of  peace.  My  duties  consisted  principally  in  aiding,  as 
gently  as  I  could,  in  lifting  mangled  men  to  the  operating 
table,  and  when  the  anaesthetics  had  produced  unconscious- 
ness, and  the  surgeon  had  severed  an  arm  or  a  leg,  to  lay  the 
naked  and  ghastly  limb  upon  the  rapidly  increasing  pile,  and 
after  the  wounded  part  had  been  dressed,  as  gently  to  lay 
away  upon  the  cold  dewy  grass  what  remained  of  a  once 
physically  perfect  man,  and  cover  him  with  a  blanket  to  await 
reaction  and — the  future. 

Towards  morning,  the  dreadful  work  of  the  night  having 
been  accomplished,  we  availed  ourselves  of  the  generous 
hospitality  of  an  ambulance  driver  from  Maine  to  stretch  our 
limbs  and  sleep  awhile,  if  possible,  upon  the  bloody  floor  and 
pillows  of  his  covered  ambulance,  while  he,  wrapped  in  his 
blanket,  lay  on  the  ground  between  the  wheels.  Sleep  came 
promptly  to  our  exhausted  natures,  but  it  was  fragrant  of 
the  blood  of  the  wounded  and  the  dead.  But  we  lay  like 
warriors  taking  our  rest  with  gory  mantles  around  us. 


GENERAL    MOSBY   AND    SPEAKER    ELAINE.  123 

Earl}'  in  the  day  we  returned  to  Fredericksburg  over  the 
same  route  we  had  come  the  day  previous.  When  we  reached 
the  valley  of  the  Nj7  the  carcasses  of  dead  horses,  shattered 
and  dismantled  army  wagons,  trunks  of  trees  splintered  and 
shivered  by  shot  and  shell,  as  by  lightning  from  the  clouds, 
and  their  green  limbs  scattered  along  the  way,  the  earth 
furrowed  in  places  as  by  the  plow,  enabled  us  to  realize 
something  of  the  desperation  of  the  conflict  of  the  evening 
before,  the  awful  hazard  of  our  reckless  enterprise  and  the 
narrowness  of  our  escape.  However,  we  congratulated  our- 
selves that  we  had,  on  the  whole,  "  done  the  State  some 
service,"  and  although  we  were  not  in  the  actual  engagement 
of  arms,  yet  the  hour  of  conflict  had  been  so  ordained  from 
on  high,  that  the  goddess  of  history,  if  she  thought  us 
worthy  of  mention  as  military  heroes,  could  not  do  otherwise, 
in  truth,  than  to  record,  for  the  pride  of  our  friends  and  the 
admiration  of  posterity,  that  so  far  from  being  willfully  and 
cowardly  too  laggard  and  late  for  the  battle,  we  were  in  fact 
nearly  an  hour  too  early.  At  all  events,  if  the  lady  of  his- 
tory did  not  mistake  and  record  us  as  sutlers,  we  should 
be  content  without  even  "  honorable  mention "  in  the  pon- 
derous tomes  of  her  history  of  the  civil  war. 

I  felt  gratified  that  the  chief  had  seen  fit  not  to  permit  his 
scouts  and  pickets  to  disturb  the  two  lone  travelers  (whom 
they  must  have  seen,  as  we  had  glimpses  of  them  in  an  open 
field  behind  a  piece  of  woods,  but  innocent  of  their  character), 
but  cared  more  for  the  government  stores  in  the  coming  train, 
for  which  they  were  on  the  lookout.  I  am  still  much  obliged  ; 
take  a  seat  on  the  "  floor,"  General  Mosby. 


124  AVAR,    AVARICE    AND    PECULATION. 


WAR,  AVARICE  AND  PECULATION. 


HPHE  gentle  and  sensitive  poet  Whittier  bemoaned  the 
^  calamities  of  the  late  civil  war  less  for  the  loss  of  life 
in  the  field  than  for  the  deaths  that  would  supervene  in  the 
decade  following  its  close,  resulting  from  the  relaxation  of 
the  high  mental  and  nervous  tension  to  which  the  nation  had 
been  wrought  and  held  during  the  clash  of  arms  ;  asserting 
that  the  extra  percentage  over  the  ordinary  death  rate  in  the 
ten  years  following  the  war  would  largely  exceed  the  thou- 
sands slain  in  battle.  To  the  careful  observer  of  the  mighty 
swath  which  death  has  mown  among  the  statesmen  who 
directed  the  war,  and  the  officers  and  soldiers  who  survived  a 
hundred  bloody  fields,  together  with  the  sudden  breaking  up 
and  wiping  out  in  early  life  of  whole  families  since  its  close, 
this  prediction  has  undoubtedly  proved  true. 

But  the  calamities  engendered  of  war  are  not  alone  death  ; 
the}r  extend  far  be}Tond  in  time  and  place  into  domestic, 
social  and  business  relations  of  life.  War  comes  ordinarily 
in  defense  of  home,  country  or  religion,  but  of  whatever 
it  brings  in  its  train  innumerable  evils,  not  the  least  of  which 
are  avarice,  plunder  and  peculation. 

When  Peter  the  Hermit  preached  the  Crusade  among  the 
princes  and  feudal  lords  of  Europe,  there  were  ready  at  hand 
a  class  of  thrifty  financial  gentlemen,  whose  business  engage- 
ments were  so  pressing,  they  could  not  enlist  personally  in  the 
holy  war,  and  too  prudent  to  invest  in  the  Holy  Sepulchre 
Bonds,  yet  who  were  ready  to  take  a  mortgage  or  deed  abso- 
lute of  baronial  and  feudal  estates,  at  very  elastic  rates  of 
interest,  to  enable  the  chivalrous  proprietors  thereof  to  make 


WAR,    AVARICE    AND    PECULATION.  125 

a  'formidable  appearance  under  the  walls  of  Jerusalem. 
Venice  reared  her  marble  palaces,  enlarged  her  canals  and 
built  the  Rialto  and  St.  Marks  from  the  proceeds  of  her  very 
advantageous  naval  contracts  for  the  transportation  of  the 
Crusaders  to  the  empire  of  Saladin.  The  mailed  knights 
failed  to  recover  the  sacred  tomb,  but  the  "  bloated  "  bond- 
holders of  the  Middle  Ages  failed  not  to  hold  their  broad 
estates. 

When  our  civil  war  broke  out,  so  unfamiliar  were  the  people 
with  the  subject  of  war,  that  not  one  in  a  hundred  thousand 
could  guess  the  cost  of  putting  a  regiment  in  the  field.  Few. 
only  could  comprehend  the  magnitude  of  a  million  of  dollars, 
but  when  money  came  to  be  printed  by  indefinite  millions, 
financial  education  commenced,  and  the  whole  country  became 
pupils  in  the  noble  science  of  finance.  A  few  venerable  old 
gentlemen  who  had  hoarded  a  stocking  of  gold,  just  to 
surprise  their  heirs  and  executors,  swapped  it  for  greenbacks 
at  $250  and  graduated  as  nabobs.  But  the  first  great  eye- 
opener  to  wealth  through  patronage  and  spoils  was  when  the 
Government  gave  into  the  hands  of  a  brother  of  a  New  York 
Senator  the  purchasing  of  a  navy  and  rewarded  him  with  a 
commission  of  $80,000  for  purchasing  a  few  hulks  rotting  at 
the  New  York  docks,  which  any  business  man  would  have 
done  for  $1,000.  Then  came  the  plunder  of  New  Orleans  and 
the  shipment  of  bullion  and  spoons  to  Massachusetts  on 
private  account.  A  few  such  elementary  lessons  soon  enabled 
the  aptest  financial  scholars  to  practice  the  art  of  sudden  and 
easy  wealth.  Soon  officials  in  charge  of  the  people's  money 
in  New  York  patterned  after  the  war  style  of  doing  business 
and  helped  themselves  and  a  few  friends  into  a  condition  of 
forehandedness.  Some  of  them  by  reason  thereof  have  been 
enabled  to  travel  in  foreign  countries,  while  others,  though 
equally  in  good  financial  health,  are  detained  near  home, 
"owing  to  circumstances  over  which  they  have  no  control." 

It  has  been  said,  persons  have  been  known  who  got  a  com- 


126  WAR,    AVARICE    AND    PECULATION. 

fortable  living  and  laid  up  a  little  money  by  minding  their 
own  business.  But  $50,000,000  have  been  made  by  seven 
well  dressed  men  in  a  single  venture  by  profound  silence 
alone,  except  putting  a  little  salt  upon  tails  of  Congressmen. 
Members  were  so  indignant  when  they  found  the  peoples' 
money  had  not  been  more  equitably  distributed  by  the  seven 
Mobilier  gentlemen,  they  raised  the  president's  salary  instanter 
to  $50,000  a  year,  and  took  $5,000  each  themselves  as  a  slight 
remuneration  for  the  mental  suffering  they  had  endured  the 
year  before. 

Railroad  management  has  partaken  largely  of  the  demoral- 
ized financiering  engendered  in  the  calamities  of  war.  If  a 
broker  uses  half  a  million  of  railroad  funds  deposited  with 
him,  and  does  not  find  it  for  his  interest  to  honor  a  check  for 
the  amount,  it  is  of  but  little  moment,  perhaps  the  company 
will  annoy  him  a  little  by  declining  to  make  any  more 
deposits  in  his  broker's  shop,  but  they  will  exhaust  their 
ingenuity  in  running  down  a  Pan  Handle  conductor,  who 
declares  himself  now  and  then  a  small  dividend  or  passes  his 
wife  or  mother  over  the  road. 

Despite  the  denunciations  of  the  press  and  the  indignation 
of  bondholders,  the  Fisks  who  can  steal  a  railroad,  and  the 
lawyer  who  can  secrete  it,  and  the  judge  who  can  pocket  its 
coupons  and  stocks,  are  heroes  in  financial  circles  where  rail- 
road and  steamship  companies  elect  directors  and  presidents 
so  thoroughly  illiterate  as  to  be  unable  to  write  a  note  to  their 
mistress,  or  tell  if  a  Panama  steamer  would  land  passengers 
at  Kamtscatka,  be  in  danger  of  icebergs  in  the  Caribbean  Sea, 
or  cross  Darien  by  the  Straits  of  Magellan. 

Cities  are  afflicted  from  the  like  general  causes.  The  good 
Shepherd  of  Washington  does  not  lay  down  his  life  for  his 
sheep,  but  goes  for  the  fleece  and  often  the  pelt.  Cleveland 
may  be  an  exception,  if  so  it  comes  of  having  so  much  buried 
treasure — such  weight  of  bullion  in  iron  pipe.  True,  we  give 
$498  each  for  a  dozen  or  so  of  five  hundred  barrel  reservoirs,. 


WAR,    AVARICE    AND    PECULATION.  127 

and  think  ourselves  more  fortunate  than  many  other  munici- 
palities if  the  contractor  fulfils  his  obligation  by  sinking  a 
hogshead  or  a  potash  kettle. 

But  however  business  may  be  conducted  or  general  finances 
managed  at  home  or  elsewhere,  Cleveland  may  be  congratu- 
lated and  take  to  herself  just  pride  in  the  management  of  her 
Sinking  Fund,  which,  in  the  hands  of  able  and  honest  com- 
missioners, in  twenty  years  has  augmented  from  $361,377.52 
to  $2,700,000,  with  a  nominal  annual  expense  of  only 
about  $600.  England,  the  land  of  faithful  trusts,  cannot 
match  such  an  instance  of  ability  and  fidelity. 


128  THE    SWORD    OF    SPAIN. 


THE  SWORD  OF  SPAIN. 


DY  Tagus'  stream  in  grand  old  Spain, 
Whose  rushing  waters  meet  the  main. 
Where  Lisbon  was  by  earthquake  lain, 
"  Remembered  well  by  all  alive 
In  seventeen  hundred  fifty-five  " 
(Which  doth  remind  us,  by  the  way, 
Was  the  very  year  and  very  day 
Of  "  The  Deacon's  wonderful  one  horse  shay)," 
Stands  old  Toledo,  wall  and  tower, — 
Iberian,  Roman,  Goth  and  Moor  ; 
And  here  that  magic  wand  is  made, 
The  gleaming  bright  Toledo  blade. 

'T  was  known  by  warriors,  kings  and  sages, 
In  th'  dark  and  distant  Middle  Ages, — 
A  vision  of  its  great  renown, 
Made  Moor  to  wander  up  and  down, 
Through  the  snowy  mountain  town, 
With  wail  as  sad  as  her  of  Rama, — 
"Woe  is  me,  woe  is  me,  Alhama  !" 


By  years  of  strife  and  bloody  wars, 
It  took  Grenada  from  the  Moors, — 
In  great  Alhambra's  stately  halls, 
It  flashed  along  its  gilded  walls, 
Where  dark-eyed  children,  Moorish  scions, 
Played  round  the  Fountain  of  the  Lions, 
And  watched  the  glib  and  chattering  rooks, 
Euilding  their  nests  in  cozy  nooks  ; 


THE    SWORD    OF    SPAIN.  129 

And  saw  the  little  fledglings  try 
From  peak  and  battlements  to  fly  ; 
And  drowsy  bat  at  evening  flit 
Around  the  roof  that  sheltered  it. 

It  followed  close  on  Boabdil, 
When  bivouac'd  on  Nevada's  hill ; 
Where  looking  back  with  sigh  and  sorrow, 
He  saw  the  Xenil  and  the  Duaro  ; 
Waved  last  adieu  with  manly  tears, 
To  the  land  they  loved  eight  hundred  years. 
Hidalgo  grand  and  lowly  poor, 
Call  it  "  The  last  sigh  of  the  Moor." 

In  Fourteen  Hundred  Ninety-Three, 
'Neath  grateful  shade  of  orange  tree, 
Along  the  banks  of  sweetest  river, 
The  dear,  delightful  Guadalquiver ; 
By  Seville's  tower  amid  the  throng, 
Perhaps  was  heard  this  little  song  : 

In  the  little  bay  of  Palos  by  the  sea, 
The  Pinta  and  the  Nina  swinging  free, 

Columbus  felt  an  aid 

In  the  bright  Toledo  blade, 
As  he  looked  out  over  the  lea. 

The  Pinta  and  the  Nina,  breezes  free, 

With  their  prows  pointing  to  the  western  lea, 

Danced  by  the  shores 

Of  the  beautiful  Azores, 
On  their  way  to  the  Sargasso  Sea. 

In  the  wondrous  New  World,  flag  unfurled, 
The  Pinta  and  the  Nina,  once  again, 
9 


130  THE    SWORD    OF    SPAIN. 

Danced  by  the  shores 
Of  the  beautiful  Azores, 
To  their  home  on  the  Spanish  main. 

In  mountain  pass,  by  marshy  brake, 
By  Titicaca's  sacred  lake, 
The  mail-clad  Spaniard  with  it  slew 
The  peaceful  Inca  of  Peru. 
The  dreadful  scourge  and  cruel  foe, 
Of  ancient  Aztec — Mexico  ; 
O'er  hecatombs  beneath  its  walls, 
It  revelled  in  Moritezuma's  halls. 
In  monarch's  hands,  without  contrition, 
It  sustained  the  awful  Inquisition  : 
And  cruel  deeds  the  blood  to  freeze, 
B}T  Torquemada,  Ximenes. 

The  "  clouded  "  land  its  prowess  sought, 
When  Egypt  the  great  Corsican  fought : — 
'Twas  drawn  by  valorous  sons  of  Cids, 
At  the  battle  of  the  Pyramids  ; 
And  wielded  well  by  Mamalukes, 
The  stalwart  sons  of  Edom's  dukes. 

But  a  nobler  service  hath  it  done, 
Than  mitraelleuse  or  needle-gun  ; 
It  hath,  'mid  dirge  and  solemn  gloom, 
And  drooping  banner,  sable  plume, 
Waved  honors  o'er  Cervante's  tomb. 


THE    NATIONAL    LAND    SYSTEM.  131 


THE  NATIONAL  LAND  SYSTEM. 


TN  that  gem  of  historical  literature,  "Prophetic  Voices," 
*•  the  last  contribution  of  Charles  Sumner  to  the  reading 
ivorld,  is  a  letter  of  David  Hartley,  British  Commissioner  to 
Paris,  to  his  government  in  1785,  when  Franklin  and  Adams 
were  commissioners  of  the  Colonial  Congress,  which  is  of 
peculiar  interest  now  after  the  lapse  of  nearly  one  hundred 
years,  as  it  discloses  the  plan  and  scheme  of  our  early  states- 
men concerning  the  disposition  of  the  public  domain  and  the 
liquidation  of  the  obligations  incurred  by  the  war  of  the 
revolution. 

It  is  interesting  as  showing  not  only  the  great  foresight  of 
our  fathers,  but  of  the  clear,  bright  intelligence  and  prophetic 
vision  of  an  English  statesman  one  hundred  years  ago,  con- 
cerning a  country  and  a  continent  which  he  had  never  seen, 
and  between  which  and  him  lay  an  ocean  three  thousand 
miles  wide.  It  is  also  of  remarkable  interest  as  showing 
how  accurate  were  the  prophetic  views,  based  of  course  upon 
an  accurate  knowledge  of  the  state  of  social  and  political 
institutions,  and  the  wants  and  aspirations  of  the  unlanded 
millions  of  Europe,  upon  the  subject  of  emigration  from 
the  old  feudal  world  to  the  new  continent  and  the  free  and 
generous  government  of  the  United  States. 

The  American  commissioners  exhibited  in  Paris  a  map  of 
the  continent,  in  which  the  land,  ceded  by  the  definitive  treaty 
of  1783,  was  divided  by  parallels  of  latitude  and  longitude 
into  fourteen  new  States,  exclusive  of  the  original  thirteen. 
That  certainly  was  a  magnificent  scheme  of  "  allotment," 
beside  which  the  operations  of  Joseph  in  Egypt  wane,  and 


132  THE    NATIONAL    LAND    SYSTEM. 

the  glory  of  our  modern  "  acre  "  dividers  is  eclipsed.  This- 
was  the  beginning  of  maps  and  allotments  in  the  United 
States.  It  was,  moreover,  the  conception  and  first  develop- 
ment of  the  idea  of  our  great  national  system  regarding  the 
public  lands.  The  original  plan  was  a  wise  and  beneficent 
one — sale  and  settlement,  and  the  proceeds  applied  to  the 
extinguishment  of  the  public  debt.  It  has  only  been  per- 
verted and  abused  b}T  gratuities  and  squanderings  in  these 
latter  days.  But  let  us  note  the  comprehensive  views  of 
David  Hartley  :  "  The  whole  project,  in  its  full  extent,  would 
take  many  years  in  its  execution,  and  therefore  it  must  be 
far  beyond  the  present  race  of  men  to  say,  '  This  shall  be  so.' 
Nevertheless,  those  who  have  the  first  care  of  this  New 
World  will  probably  give  it  such  directions  and  inherent 
influences  as  may  guide  and  control  its  course  and  revolutions 
for  ages  to  come.  But  these  plans,  being  beyond  the  reach 
of  man  to  predestinate,  are  likewise  beyond  the  reach  of 
comment  or  speculation,  to  say  what  may  or  may  not  be  pos- 
sible, or  to  predict  what  events  may  hereafter  be  produced  by 
time,  climates,  soils,  adjoining  nations,  or  by  the  unwieldy 
magnitude  of  empire,  and  the  future  population  of  millions 
superadded  to  millions.  The  sources  of  the  Mississippi  may 
be  unknown,  the  lines  of  longitude  and  latitude  may  be 
extended  into  unexplored  regions,  and  the  plan  of  this  new 
creation  may  be  sketched  out  by  a  presumptuous  compass,  if 
all  its  intermediate  uses  and  functions  were  to  be  suspended 
until  the  final  and  precise  accomplishment,  without  failure  or 
deviation,  of  this  unbounded  plan.  But  this  is  not  the  case ; 
the  immediate  objects  in  view  are  limited  and  precise  ;  they 
are  prudent  of  thought,  and  within  the  scope  of  human 
power  to  measure  out  and  execute.  The  principle  indeed  is 
indefinite,  and  will  be  left  to  the  test  of  future  ages  to  deter- 
mine its  duration  or  extent." 

He  suggests  to  his  government  that  the  councils  which 
produced  these  plans  had  wiser  and  more  sedate  views  than 


THE    NATIONAL    LAND    SYSTEM.  133 

merely  the  amusement  of  drawing  meridians  of  ambition 
and  high  thoughts.  "  There  appear  to  me  to  be  two  solid 
and  rational  objects  in  view :  the  first  is,  by  the  sale  of  the 
lands  contiguous  to  the  present  States,  to  extinguish  the  pres- 
ent national  debt  which,  I  understand,  might  be  discharged 
for  about  twelve  millions  sterling."  Under  the  second  point 
he  holds  up  "an  unparalleled  phenomenon  in  the  political 
world,"  suggesting  that  as  soon  as  the  national  debt  is  dis- 
charged the  Confederate  Republic  will  appear  in  a  new 
character,  as  proprietor  of  lands,  either  for  sale  or  to  let 
upon  rents,  while  other  nations  may  be  struggling  under 
taxation,  with  debts  too  enormous  to  discharge.  "  Here  will 
be  a  nation  possessed  of  a  new  and  unheard  of  financial 
organ  of  stupendous  magnitude,  and  in  process  of  time  of 
unmeasured  value,  thrown  into  their  lap  as  a  fortuitous 
superfluity  and  almost  without  being  sought  for." 

It  is  surprising  with  what  clearness  this  Englishman  fore- 
sees the  great  tide  of  emigration.  The  temptations  of  fertile 
soils  and  temperate  climates,  land  to  be  purchased  at  a  trifling 
consideration,  which  may  be  possessed  in  freedom,  together 
with  natural  and  civil  rights,  with  no  qualifications  but  to 
become  settlers,  without  distinction  of  country  or  persons, 
will  cause  "the  European  peasant,  who  toils  for  his  scanty 
sustenance  in  penury,  wretchedness  and  servitude,  to 
eagerly  fly  to  this]  asylum  for  free  and  industrious  labor." 
"The  Congress  has  now  opened  to  all  the  world  a  sale,  of 
landed  settlements,  where  the  liberty  and  property  of  each 
individual  is  to  be  consigned  to  his  own  custody  and  defence. 

"The  Congress  has  arranged  its  offers  in  the  most  invit- 
ing and  artful  terms,  and  lest  individual  peasants  and  laborers 
should  not  have  means  of  removing  themselves,  it  throws 
out  inducements  to  moneyed  adventurers  to  purchase  and  to 
undertake  the  settlement  by  commission  and  agency,  without 
personal  residence,  by  stipulating  that  the  land  of  proprietors, 
toeing  absentees,  shall  not  be  higher  taxed  than  the  land  of 


134  THE    NATIONAL    LAND    SYSTEM. 

residents.  This  will  quicken  the  sale  of  lands,  which  is  its 
object."  Such  was  the  beginning  and  such  were  the  views  of 
a  foresighted  and  friendly  Englishman  nearly  one  hundred 
years  ago  of  the  land  system  of  the  government.  We  still 
have  a  few  lots  left. 


THE    YEAR    OF    CENTENNIALS.  135 


THE  YEAR  OF  CENTENNIALS. 


PHIS   year   of    1874   marks   a   centennial    period   which 
•*•     awakens  wonderful  historical  memories  not  to  be  sur- 
passed, but  only  to  reach  their  climax  in  that  grander  cen- 
tennial which  the  nation  anticipates  in  1876. 

Iceland  celebrates  this  year  the  one-thousandth  year  of 
her  political  existence  in  the  icy  waters  of  the  Arctic  Sea. 
The  great  chemists  of  our  country  have  just  concluded  their 
important  reunion  at  Northumberland,  Pa,,  in  honor  of 
Preistley,  the  philosopher  and  discoverer  of  oxygen,  August 
1,  1774.  While  the  great  chemist  was  analyzing  the  elements, 
the  patriots  and  statesmen  of  the  American  colonies  were 
anatyzing  the  powers  of  governments  and  the  rights  of  man. 
The  tea  had  been  emptied  in  Boston  harbor  a  few  months 
before.  Franklin  wrote  from  London  that  he  hoped  compen- 
sation would  be  made  to  the  East  India  company  therefor. 
The  grand  old  patriot,  Gadsden,  of  South  Carolina,  wrote., 
"Don't  pay  for  an  ounce  of  the  damned  tea."  They  didn't 
pay.  Then  came  England's  retaliation.  The  Boston  Port  Bill 
was  moved  in  Parliament  March  14th.  It  passed  May  3d, 
and  received  the  royal  assent  on  the  20th.  On  the  1st  of 
June  it  took  effect,  and  General  Gage  and  an  armed  fleet 
came  to  enforce  it.  The  spirit  of  union  which  animated  the 
people  of  all  the  colonies,  South  as  well  as  North,  is  refreshing 
to  read  in  these  latter  days.  A  letter  from  South  Carolina  to 
the  Boston  Committee  of  Correspondence  said  :  "  One  soul 
animates  three  millions  of  brave  Americans,  though  extended 
over  a  long  trail  of  three  thousand  miles.  If  they  (the 
ministers)  ever  subdue  New  England — may  God  forbid — that 


136  THE    YEAR    OF    CENTENNIALS. 

instant  the  evil  genius  Tyranny  will  begin  to  stalk  over  these 
premises  with  gigantic  strides."  One  hundred  years  ago  this 
month  regiments  of  soldiers  from  famous  battle  fields  of 
Europe  were  in  Boston.  The}'  filled  Castle  William  in  the 
harbor,  swarmed  at  Fort  Hill,  and  guarded  the  royal  governor 
at  Salem.  Thirty  ships  of  war  were  in  the  harbor.  Then 
began  the  grand  uprising  of  the  people,  determined  to  die  or 
be  free.  Then  came  the  donation  committees,  the  aid  socie- 
ties and  sanitary  fairs  of  those  days,  to  feed  and  clothe  the 
distressed  people  of  Boston.  It  is  good  to  read  at  this  day 
the  noble  letters  of  condolence  and  sympathy  addressed  to 
them  by  every  colony,  urging  them  to  perseverance  and 
praying  that  they  might  be  endowed  with  fortitude.  New 
Hampshire  patriots  wrote  :  "  We  look  on  the  cause  in  which 
you  are  engaged  as  a  common  cause,  and  that  we  and  our 
posterity  are  equally  interested  with  you  in  the  event." 
They  make  a  contribution  and  say  :  "  What  3^011  herewith 
receive  comes  not  from  the  opulent,  but  mostly  from  indus- 
trious yeomanry.  This  is  considered  not  as  a  gift  or  an  act 
of  charity,  but  of  justice — a  small  part  of  what  we  are  in 
duty  bound  to  communicate  to  those  truly  noble  and  patriotic 
advocates  of  American  freedom,  who  are  bravely  standing  in 
a  gap  between  us  and  slaver}',  and  defending  a  whole  conti- 
nent, and  gloriously  struggling  for  the  cause  of  liberty." 
Connecticut  wrote  :  "  This  (contribution)  we  consider  the  first 
payment  of  a  large  debt  we  owe  you,  and  shall  be  ready  to 
repeat  it  from  time  to  time,  as  long  as  your  necessity  and  our 
abilit}r  shall  continue."  New  York  wrote:  "We  want 
language  to  express  our  abhorrence  of  this  additional  act  of 
tyranny  to  America,"  New  Jersey,  Maryland  and  each  of 
the  Southern  Colonies  wrote  in  the  same  glowing  and  patriotic 
terms,  and  each  making  their  contribution  to  the  common 
•cause. 

In  the  light  of  late  events  we  read  with  astonishment  the 
grand  outburst  of  patriotic,  sentiment  in  South  Carolina  :  "  Be 


THE    YEAR    OF    CENTENNIALS.  137 

•comforted,  ye  oppressed  Bostonians  !  and  exult,  ye  Northern 
votaries  of  liberty !  that  the  sacred  rays  of  freedom,  which 
used  to  beam  from  you  on  us,  are  now  reverberated  with 
double  efficac}'  back  upon  yourselves,  from  your  weaker 
sister,  Carolina,  who  stands  foremost  in  her  resolution  to 
sacrifice  her  all  in  your  defense." 

Oh,  for  a  renewal  of  the  spirit  of  the  revolutionary  days  ! 
Let  the  dead  past  bury  its  dead ;  and  let  the  future  inter- 
course and  friendship  between  all  parts  of  our  country  partake 
something  of  the  spirit  which  inspired  our  grandfathers  in 
1774. 


138  THE    MILLENNIAL    OF    ICELAND. 


THE  MILLENNIAL  OF  ICELAND. 


1  \  7E  once  stopped  for  a  moment  to  admire  a  ponderous 
*  *  block  of  elaborately  chiseled  stone,  about  to  be  elevated 
to  its  place  in  one  of  the  modern  elegant  structures  with 
which  Cleveland  is  now  being  adorned,  and  were  emboldened 
to  ask  the  man  of  the  mallet  and  chisel  his  views  as  to  the 
time  when  the  sediment  had  fully  accumulated  under  the 
waters,  which  time  had  eventually  hardened  into  such  pure, 
beautiful  and  creamy  stone,  so  useful  to  man  and  so  happily 
adapted  to  aid  the  architect  in  beautifying  and  adorning  a 
city.  He  expressed  his  opinion  that  it  was  a  good  while  ago, 
perhaps  five  or  six  hundred  years.  He  was  a  bright,  intelli- 
gent carver  in  stone,  but  without  the  reflections  of  a  Hugh 
Miller.  When  we  modestly  asked  him  if  he  did  not  think 
that  six  million  years  would  come  a  trifle  nearer  the  exact 
period,  he  smilingly  confounded  us  with  the  suggestion  that 
it  was  onl}r  six  thousand  years  since  the  world  was  made  L 
We  felt  the  reproof  something  as  did  the  social  English 
antiquarian,  riding  upon  the  box  with  the  stage  driver,  who 
remarked  to  the  nlan  of  the  ribbons  and  whip,  in  passing 
Stonehenge,  that  those  monoliths  and  dolmans  were  erected/ 
by  the  Druids  more  than  two  thousand  years  ago.  The 
driver  replied  that  it  could  not  be  possible,  "for,"  said  he,  "it 
is  only  1870  now  !"  Our  artist  in  stone  seemed  content  with 
any  geological  period  that  antedated  Pease's  survey  of 
Cleveland  and  the  Buffalo  Land  Company. 

This  is  but  quite  a  common  feeling.  The  thoughts  and 
reflections  of  most  persons  are  limited  to  the  period  of  the 
Christian  era  and  are  altogether,  or  nearly  so,  oblivious  of  the 


THE    MILLENNIAL    OF    ICELAND. 

prior  ages.  In  contemplating  the  history  of  our  own  country, 
how  man}'  of  us  have  a  feeling  that  the  toils  and  struggles  of 
English  men  and  women  and  their  descendants  are  confined 
within  that  centennial  period  which  we  are  about  to  celebrate. 
Who  reads  or  thinks  much  of  Colonial  history — the  dim  and 
shadowy  one  hundred  and  fifty  years  from  the  landing  on 
Plymouth  rock  to  the  "  glittering  generalities "  of  1776  ? 
Who  thinks  of  that  still  earlier  period  of  a  hundred  and 
twenty-eight  years,  when  there  was  known  neither  Plymouth 
nor  Jamestown,  during  which  time  DeSoto  found  a  grave 
in  the  Mississippi ;  Cortez  despoiled  the  Empire  of  Monte- 
zuma,  and  the  mail-clad  Pizaro  slew  the  Peruvian  Inca  and 
possessed  himself  of  temples  as  rich  in  golden  vessels  as 
Jerusalem,  and  an  empire  that  was  cotemporaneous  with  that 
of  the  Pharaohs  ? 

But  while  the  people  of  the  United  States  are  contemplating 
the  grandeur  and  glory  of  their  one  hundred  years  of  national 
existence,  and  preparing  to  make  the  one  hundredth  memor- 
able in  history,  how  little  do  they  think  of  the  descendants  of 
the  Eriks,  the  Hengists  and  the  Horsas,  and  the  Vikings  of  the 
Baltic,  and  those  who  migrated  with  Ingolf,  the  Norwegian, 
in  Anno  Domini  874,  and  made  their  lonely  home  in  the  long 
twilight  under  the  Arctic  Circle  in  Iceland  ?  The  Danish 
Puritans  of  the  ninth  century  —  England  was  but  the 
Heptarchy  —  two  hundred  years  before  that  renowned  real 
estate  gentleman,  William  the  Conqueror,  cut  up  the  British 
island  into  about  60,000  lots  and  sold  them  out  to  persons  of 
quality  and  standing  in  his  army — the  grandest  land  "opera- 
tion "  since  Joseph  bought  up  all  the  arable  lands  in  Egypt. 

When  the  Danes  went  to  Iceland,  Charlemagne  was  affect- 
ing the  consequences  of  the  ancient  Roman  emperors,  and 
scholars  from  Hibernia  were  teaching  the  imperial  household 
of  Gaul ;  Germany  was  not,  and  France  was  not,  as  now. 
The  Caliphs  ruled  in  Spain,  and  their  empire  stretched  from 
Gibraltar  to  the  Ganges.  The  Turk  was  not  yet  in  Europe 


140  THE    MILLENNIAL    OF    ICELAND. 

by  five  hundred  years,  and  four  hundred  years  before  the 
Tartars  established  the  empire  of  the  Khan  in  Russia. 

Here  in  this  hyperborean  island  for  a  thousand  years  have 
lived  and  loved  the  peaceful  and  gentle  descendants  of  the 
earl}r  Scandinavian.  Here  schools  flourished,  and  poets  have 
written  the  Edda  and  Sagas.  Here  under  the  bright  aurora 
boys  and  girls  study  their  geography  and  pity  the  poor 
children  in  the  United  States,  who  have  to  go  to  school  in  a 
summer's  heat  indicated  by  90  degrees  of  the  thermometer  ; 
who  have  such  short  nights  for  sleep,  and  only  three  months 
in  the  whole  }Tear  to  slide  down  hill  and  snow  ball.  Here  sit 
gentle  old  ladies  with  tidy  caps  and  aprons,  knitting  stock- 
ings during  the  long  Arctic  winter  and  teaching  their  grand- 
children the  catechism  of  the  Church,  the  wisdom  of  the  sagas 
and  the  mythological  legends  of  Wodan  and  of  Thor.  Here, 
four  hundred  years  before  Columbus  was  born,  these  hardy 
and  enterprising  people  built  ships  that  sailed  into  the  Medi- 
terranean and  along  the  coast  of  Africa ;  attempted  the 
colonization  of  New  England,  the  evidence  of  which  exists  in 
the  Icelandic  histories,  in  the  Runic  inscription  upon  Dighton 
rock  and  the  mysterious  stone  structure  which  now  curiously 
attracts  the  summer  tourists  at  Newport. 

This  year  the  pleasant  inhabitants  of  Iceland  celebrate 
their  millennial.  We  congratulate  them  on  the  long  life  of 
their  State,  and  we  not  only  invite  them  to  come  and  see  us 
celebrate  in  1876,  but  we  invite  their  descendants  to  meet 
our  descendants  in  celebrating  the  one  thousandth  anniversary 
of  the  American  Independence,  Anno  Domini  2776.  Had  we 
the  loose  change  of  a  Yanderbilt,  we  would  charter  a  steamer 
and  invite  our  Cleveland  friends  to  the  Geysers  and  to  Hecla, 
to  the  bright  Auroras  of  the  Arctic,  and  to  the  Icelandic 
millennial  of  1874. 


THE    PRESS    AND    THE    CARDIFF    GIANTS.  141 


THE  PRESS  AND  THE  CARDIFF  GIANTS. 


R  a  hundred  and  fifty  years  the  American  press  ha& 
been  struggling  and  winning  its  way  against  political 
and  ecclesiastical  authorities,  and  the  avarice,  malice  or  desire 
of  notoriety  of  private  persons,  to  its  present  position  of 
independence  and  power. 

As  early  as  1720  the  Colonial  Assembly  at  Philadelphia, 
surrounded  with  the  royal  insignia  of  George  III.,  summoned 
before  them  the  editor  and  printer  of  one  of  the  very  first 
papers  published  in  the  Quaker  City,  and  admonished  him 
for  his  audacity  in  expressing  editorially  the  hope  and 
expectation  that  that  body  "  will  find  some  effectual  remedy 
to  revive  the  dying  credit  of  this  Province  and  restore  us  to 
our  former  happiness  ;"  and  warning  him  never  to  publish 
anything  more  relative  to  the  affairs  of  any  of  the  colonies. 
In  modern  days  such  an  expression  would  be  regarded  as 
moderate  and  humbly  touching  the  state  of  the  country  and 
government ;  in  fact,  we  should  now  think  the  expression 
lacked  vim  and  spirit  if  found  in  the  money  article  of  a 
commercial  paper ;  but  the  editor  of  that  day  offended  the 
dignity  of  authority  in  offering  his  personal  advice,  rather 
than,  as  now  understood,  expressing  the  sentiments  of  the 
people.  Perhaps  in  this  case  the  Assembly  thought  the 
editor  had  an  eye  to  "  inflation,"  and.  meant  more  green- 
backs, hence  this  early  veto  upon  the  liberty  of  the  press.. 

A  printer  boy  in  the  office  of  this  same  paper  got  to 
trying  his  hand  at  writing,  when  out  of  copy,  and  put  into 
type  his  own  composition  which  was  in  substance,  "  that 
firmness  of  mind  and  public  spirit  are  requisite  to  the 


142  THE    PRESS    AND    THE    CARDIFF    GIANTS. 

friends  of  liberty,  that  this  greatly  proceeds  from  a  just  way 
of  thinking,  that  we  are  not  born  for  ourselves  alone,  nor  for 
our  private  advantage,  but  likewise,  and  principally,  for  the 
good  of  others  and  of  civil  society — such  principles  animated 
the  Romans,  Cato  and  others,  and  that  it  was  impossible  to 
be  thought  great  or  good  without  being  a  patriot,  and  none 
could  pretend  to  courage,  gallantry  and  greatness  of  mind 
without  being  first  of  all  possessed  with  a  public  spirit  and 
love  of  their  country."  These  noble  and  patriotic  sentiments 
being  published  just  before  a  Colonial  election,  the  royal 
governor  and  council  were,  so  affected  that  they  ordered  the 
editor's  arrest  and  commitment  to  prison,  and  bound  him 
over  to  the  court. 

The  earl}'  journalists  in  Boston  were  anno}'ed  by  Mather 
and  other  ecclesiastics,  who  constantly  represented  to  the 
general  court  the  evil  tendencies  of  the  journals  of  that  day, 
and  that  bigoted  body  could  easily  find  that  the  journals  in 
question  had  "  affronted  His  Majesty's  government,"  if  they 
could  find  nothing  detrimental  to  morals  or  religion  therein, 
and  so  order  that  the  paper  must  be  no  longer  printed  by  its 
proprietor  and  founder. 

The  high-handed  and  arbitrary  disposition  of  British 
subjects  and  equally  dictatorial  bigots  of  New  England 
against  the  freedom  of  the  press  to  comment  upon  or  to  often 
give  the  legitimate  and  ordinary  news  of  the  day,  touching 
the  government  or  the  church,  manifested  itself  in  1722,  when 
a  pirate  vessel  appeared  off  Block  Island,  which  was  pursued 
and  captured  b}'  the  enterprising  authorities  of  Rhode  Island; 
.an  account  of  which  was  communicated  by  letter  from  New- 
port to  the  Boston  Courant,  and  intimating  therein  negligence 
on  the  part  of  the  Colonial  authorities  of  Massachusetts  Bay 
in  not  having  pursued  and  captured  the  marauding  ship. 
This  paragraph  so  wounded  the  dignity  of  the  governor  and 
•council,  that  Franklin,  the  editor,  was  committed  to  prison  to 
atone  for  the  affront  to  His  Majesty's  government  in  New 


THE    PRESS    AND    THE    CARDIFF    GIANTS.  143 

England.  The  various  and  numerous  orders  in  council, 
regarding  newspapers  of  enterprise  and  spirit  of  a  hundred 
and  fifty  years  ago,  indicate  that  those  journals  were  far  in 
advance  of  the  spirit  of  the  age  in  which  the}7  had  their 
origin. 

The  first  action  against  a  newspaper  for  libel  on  this  conti- 
nent was  in  New  York  in  1734,  when  Washington  was  in  his 
cradle  and  Rip  Van  Dam  was  the  great  merchant  and,  for  a 
time,  acting  governor  of  the  Province.  It  was  not  the  good 
and  genial  Governor  Rip  Van  Dam  that  embarked  in  this 
iirst  libel  suit,  but  his  immediate  successor,  William  Crosby, 
Captain  General  and  Governor-in-Chief  of  New  York  and 
New  Jersey,  Vice  Admiral  and  Colonel  in  His  Majesty's 
army  &c.  The  Journal  was  the  newspaper,  and  J.  Peter 
Zenger  was  the  offending  editor.  The  specific  libel  complained 
of  was  in  substance  that  "  the  people  of  this  city  (New  York) 
and  province  think,  as  matters  now  stand,  that  their  liberties 
and  properties  are  precarious,  and  that  slavery  is  likely  to  be 
entailed  on  them  and  their  posterity,  if  some  past  things  be 
not  amended." 

Zenger  was  in  jail,  with  only  the  liberty  to  speak  to  his 
wife  and  friends  through  a  hole  in  the  door  —  but  his  paper 
went  on  more  popular  than  ever.  The  number  containing 
the  libel  was  ordered  to  be  burnt  by  the  common  hangman, 
and  the  mayor  and  magistrates  were  directed  to  be  present. 
The  corporation  refused  to  attend,  and  the  Provincial 
Assembly  also  declined  to  join  in  this  crusade  against  the 
press.  The  friends  of  Zenger  engaged  Andrew  Hamilton, 
Philadelphia's  great  lawyer  of  that  day,  for  the  defense.  On 
trial  the  printing  was  confessed.  Proof  of  the  truth  thereof 
was  offered,  but  which  the  court  rejected,  and  Hamilton  then 
proceeded  to  make  that  celebrated  argument  which  wrought 
in  time  the  overthrow  of  the  old  English  judge  made  law  of 
libel.  Hamilton's  speech,  which  is  extant  after  a  hundred 
and  forty  years,  is  said  to  equal  that  of  Erskine  in  1792,  in 


144  THE    PRESS    AND    THE    CARDIFF    GIANTS. 

the  great  libel  suit  of  Thomas  Paine  for  the  publication  of 
the  "Rights  of  Man"  in  London.  The  court  charged  the 
jury  that  the  words  were  libelous,  but  the  jury  returned  a 
verdict  of  not  guilty.  The  excitement  was  great.  Hamilton 
was  given  a  splendid  entertainment  and  presented  with  the 
freedom  of  the  city  by  the  Common  Council,  "  for  the  remark- 
able service  done  by  him  to  the  city  and  the  colour  by  his 
learning  and  generous  defense  of  the  rights  of  mankind  and 
the  liberty  of  the  press."  Thus  ended  the  first  and  most 
celebrated  libel  suit  in  America. 

Since  libel  suits  have  been  within  the  control  of  the  jury,  as 
to  the  law  as  well  as  the  fact,  they  have  not  been  quite 
as  interesting  to  aspiring  men  and  soldiers  of  fortune  as  in 
the  early  days.  As  a  means  of  obtaining  large  sums  of 
money  they  have  long  since  failed  to  be  a  success.  1  Authors 
like  Charles  Reade  sometimes  resort  to  such  suits  as  an  ad- 
vertisement for  a  novel,  affecting  injury  at  the  hand  of  some 
critic.  Thus  they  get  a  poor  novel  read  to  a  jury,  discussed 
by  clever  counsel  and  the  case  published  in  the  newspapers^ 
and  then  the  whole  object  has  been  accomplished. 

Count  Johannes,  a  hair-brained  attorney-at-law  in  New 
York,  who  was  a  sort  of  monomaniac  upon  the  subject  of 
titles,  blood  and  ancestry,  used  the  courts  to  vindicate  his 
title  of  "  Count,"  when  the  papers  had  intimated  that  such  a 
title  in  this  country  was  of  no  account.  Encouraged  by  the 
example  of  the  count,  the  Cardiff  Giant,  by  its  next  friend,  the 
showman,  has  brought  suit  against  the  Boston  Herald  to 
vindicate  its  paternit}*  and  determine  whether  the  giant  was 
chiseled  by  ]  Chicago  artists,  or  the  community  has  been 
chiseled  by  the  giant. 


OBLITERATING    THE    LANDMARKS.  145 


OBLITERATING  THE  LANDMARKS. 


D  things  pass  away,  and  all  things  become  new.  The 
last  wooden  building  on  Superior  street  is  (1874)  being 
razed  to  the  ground  to  make  way  for  another  of  those  hand- 
some structures  writh  which  the  good  taste  of  our  architects 
have,  in  the  last  few  years,  embellished  and  adorned  our 
goodly  and  beautiful  city. 

When  contrasted  with  the  substantial  and  elegant  struct- 
ures of  modern  days,  the  old  "  City  Building  "  has  been  to 
many  for  a  long  time  an  eyesore  ;  but  to  a  few  now  living, 
who  were  familiar  with  a  former  generation  of  business  men, 
the  dismantling  and  demolition  of  that  venerable  old  land- 
mark will  awaken  a  train  of  pleasant  and  melancholy  reflec- 
tions of  the  past.  The  despised  old  building  was  once  the 
pride  of  the  infant  city.  It  was  built  nearly  forty  years  ago, 
when  Wheeler  Bartram  was  an  enterprising  man  with  high 
hopes  of  the  future  greatness  of  the  city  ;  when  Scranton 
owned  the  broad  and  naked  "  bottom,"  now  docked  and 
wharfed  and  occupied  with  the  industries  of  a  great  com- 
mercial and  manufacturing  city  ;  when  Case,  Perry,  Dodge, 
Weddell  and  Scovill  owned  and  lived  upon  great  farms  in 
the  country,  and  Captain  Johnson  was  going  down  upon  the 
lakes  in  ships  and  doing  business  upon  great  waters  ;  when 
the  streets  echoed  to  the  tread  of  James  S.  Clark,  the.  mighty 
man  of  enterprise  and  energy  and  the  Mogul  of  real  estate 
men. 

The  old  City  Building  was  a  cotemporary  of  the  two  brick 
buildings  on  the  corners  of  Ontario  and  Prospect  streets,  now 
alike  valuable  and  venerable  for  their  antiquity,  and  which, 
10 


146  OBLITERATING    THE    LANDMARKS. 

for  many  years,  were  the  only  brick  buildings  '  on  Ontario 
street.  Three  or  four  buildings  of  the  same  age  and  class, 
now  or  lately  standing  on  Detroit  street,  near  Pearl,  were  all 
likewise  the  result  of  the  high  hopes  and  enthusiasm  of  the 
men  of  '36,  of  whom  James  S.  Clark  was  king. 

Within  the  last  twenty  }Tears  the  City  Building  and  lot 
"  79,"  extending  from  Superior  street  across  Long,  Cham- 
plain,  Michigan  and  Canal  streets  and  the  Ohio  canal  to  the 
river,  have  been  more  especially  associated  with  the  names  of 
the  late  Edmund  Clark  and  Richard  Hilliard  —  one  the  grave 
but  genial  banker  of  the  old  Cleveland  Insurance  Company  ; 
the  other  for  many  years  esteemed  as  one  of  the  wisest  and 
most  enterprising  of  business  men,  and  admired  as  a  dignified 
and  stately  merchant  of  the  old  school.  Had  Mr.  Hilliard's 
life  been  spared  a  few  years  longer,  the  old  City  Building 
would  have  long  since  made  way  for  a  structure  worthy  of 
his  name. 

Allusion  to  the  old  and  famous  real  estate  men  of  1836, 
brings  to  mind  a  tale  that  has  been  told  us  by  their  surviving 
cotemporaries.  It  was  the  sagacious  judgment  and  prophecy 
of  those  men,  and  whose  faith  was  made  manifest  by  their 
investment  upon  Ontario  and  Detroit  streets,  that  those 
points  were  destined  in  time  to  be  choice  and  valuable  busi- 
ness and  trading  centres,  and  the  intervening  valley  was  to  be 
the  seat  of  great  industries  in  all  the  future  of  the  city.  They 
judged  well,  and  were  only  a  little  in  advance  of  the  age  in 
their  investments. 

There  was,  perhaps,  in  those  days  some  rivalry  of  enterprise 
between  the  two  sister  cities,  but  which  has  long  since  passed 
away,  and  business  relations  and  social  intercourse  are  as  that 
of  one  great  and  consolidated  city,  whose  people  are  solicitous 
for  nothing  in  the  future  so  much  as  for  some  better  facilities 
for  daily  intercourse  —  some  bridge  to  that  almost  impassable 
gulf  which  nature  has  placed  in  the  midst  of  a  people  whose 
aspirations  are  alike,  and  whose  interests  are  one  and  in- 


OBLITERATING    THE    LANDMARKS.  147 

separable — that  valley  and  shadow  of  death  to  the  traveler 
by  night  or  by  day. 

The  first  great  public  enterprise  of  the  city  government 
should  be  in  the  line  of  utility  —  in  the  conserving,  and  con- 
solidating the  common  and  mutual  interests  of  the  people  — 
and  nothing  will  so  much  unite  and  inspire  our  citizens  as 
that  facility  which  will  enable  them  to  pass  from  plateau  to 
plateau  upon  a  broad  way  and  high  level  above  that  dreaded 
valle}'. 

Even  at  the  expense  of  a  million  dollars  it  would  be  remu- 
nerative by  increased  general  values,  besides  being  of  inestima- 
ble benefit  and  convenience  to  every  citizen.  To  one  bare- 
footed such  a  sum  of  course  looks  large  ;  but  when  we  con- 
template that  the  cost  of  such  a  desirable  improvement  is 
within  the  means  of  man}'  of  our  citizens  individually,  the 
enormity  of  the  sum  is  wonderfulljT  lessened.  In  fact  several 
gentlemen  could  be  named  who  could  build  five  bridges  across 
that  might}'  gulf  and  still  preserve  their  reputation  of  being 
"  forehanded." 

City  halls  and  lake  side  parks  are  necessary,  and  to  be 
desired  ;  but  roads  and  bridges  are  the  first  essential  to  a  full 
enjoyment  by  all  the  people  of  such  necessaries  and  luxuries. 
Boulevard  Euclid  is  an  inspiration  that  comes  of  wealth  and 
travel  and  cultured  taste,  intimately  associated  with  the 
visible  charms  which  nature  has  so  abundantly  lavished  upon 
that  delightful  avenue.  But  if  the  city  first  embarks  in 
carrying  coals  to  Newcastle,  or  in  painting  the  lily,  it  will 
tend  to  postpone  a  work  of  the  first  necessity. 

The  work  which  is  destined  to  effect  "a  more  perfect 
union  "  of  this  people  should  not  be  too  long  delayed.  And 
if  this  great  enterprise  could  be  entrusted  to  the  manage- 
ment of  a  board  of  gentlemen,  such  as  built  the  water  works 
or  manage  the  sinking  fund  of  the  city,  the  people  need  not 
have  any  fear  for  squandered  money  or  burdensome  taxation. 


148  NATIONAL    REFORM    AND    PRIMARY    MEETINGS. 


NATIONAL  REFORM  AND  PRIMARY  MEETINGS. 


TN  the  September  number  of  Old  and  New  (1874)  the  editor, 
-*•  in  several  columns  devoted  to  comments  upon  college  com- 
mencement addresses,  seems  to  approximate  somewhat  closely 
towards  demonstrating  the  actual  existence  of  that  rather 
limited  and  very  close  corporation,  by  some  heretofore 
charitably  believed  to  be  wholly  mythical,  which  the  literary 
New  Yorker  has  been  wont  to  denominate  the  Boston  Mutual 
Admiration  Society. 

If  such  an  institution  exists,  having  its  honors  of  member- 
ship limited,  like  the  French  Academy,  to  fort}*,  it  is  veiy 
desirable  and  quite  justifiable,  in  filling  a  vacancy  from 
among  the  fresh  graduates  of  Harvard,  that  the  young  man 
of  common  circumstances  and  moderate  social  consideration, 
who  may  "  aspire  to  the  honor  of  being  the  equal  of  men  of 
letters,"  be  ignored  and  the  thirty-nine  white  balls  of  the 
sitting  members  be  dropped  for  the  candidate  for  the  vacant 
chair  who  inherits  the  nobler  qualifications  of  ancestry  and 
blood.  The  pleasant  and  patronizing  member  of  the  Amer- 
ican Academy  of  Mutual  Admiration  deigns  to  give,  in  his 
excellent  magazine,  the  meagre  compliment  of  a  dozen  lines 
to  Dr.  Peabody's  elaborate  baccalaureate  on  the  tri-lingual 
inscription  on  the  Cross — Hebrew,  Greek,  Latin — and  to  the 
interesting  discourse  of  Dr.  Gould,  upon  his  astronomical 
labors  in  South  America,  the  editorial  consideration  of  a  less 
number.  Dr.  Means'  thoughtful  paper  upon  the  comparative 
philosophy  and  theory  of  government  found  in  Plato,  Comte 
and  Mill  with  those  of  Christianit}*,  at  Bowdoin,  is  bareh* 
alluded  to  ;  and  General  Walker's  bold  address  upon  the 


NATIONAL    REFORM    AND    PRIMARY    MEETINGS.  149 

subject  of  wages,  at  Amherst,  awakens  only  an  admiring 
smile  of  three  lines.  Not  so,  however,  the  class  oration  of 
young  Mr.  Richard  H.  Dana,  3d,  to  whose  commonplace  one 
whole  column  of  extracted  paragraphs  is  given,  with  a  prelim- 
inar}T  flourish  reminding  the  world  that  the  grandfather  of  the 
young  graduate  is  the  venerable  Richard  H.  Dana,  who  still 
lives,  "  surrounded  Iry  honor,  love  and  troops  of  friends"- 
the  same  gentleman  who  fifty  years  ago  retired  among  the 
classic  shades  of  Harvard,  dignified,  but  cold  to  a  world  that 
loved  "  Thanatopsis  "  more  than  the  "  Buccaneers." 

If  by  any  possibilit}-  the  }Toung  gentleman  shall  hereafter 
be  led  to  question  the  divine  afflatus  in  the  grandfather,  he 
may  still  find  a  just  and  noble  aspiration  in  the  reflection, 
and  a  high  incentive  to  a  future  professional  career,  when  he 
is  assured  by  his  friend  that  he  is  the  son  of  his  father — 
"  who,  as  an  athletic  youngster,  set  the  boys  of  a  generation 
ago  crazy  by  describing  the  hardships  of  '  Two  Years  before 
the  Mast,'  and  at  the  same  time  opened  the  Golden  Gate  of 
San  Francisco  to  the  reading  world — is  pulling  loyall}'  at  his 
oar,  serving  the  public-  and  the  State  in  the  hard  work  of  a 
leading  lawyer  in  Boston,  and  who  is  just  now  chairman  of 
the  executive  committee  of  overseers  of  Harvard  College." 

The  extracts  given,  disclose  the  burden  of  Mr.  Dana's  class 
oration  to  be  an  elaboration  of  some  remarks  of  Mr.  Tom 
Hughes  concerning  the  duty  of  men  of  high  culture  to  take 
greater  interest  in  public  affairs.  Mr.  Dana  bemoans  that  "it 
is  only  too  true  that  too  many  educated  men  do  hold  back 
from  public  life  ;  that  they  do  not  attend  the  polls  and 
nominating  meetings  as  they  ought."  This  startling  asser- 
tion may  possiblj*  be  true  as  to  some  of  the  Southern  States 
and  a  few  remote  districts  "out  West";  but  in  Cambridge, 
where  this  young  man  resides,  and  where  he  is  resolved  to 
"  attend  the  polls  and  nominating  meetings"  in  furtherance  of 
what  he  calls  "  a  national  reform,"  it  does  not  seem  to  be  the 
case.  Had  he  not  been  for  the  last  few  years  so  absorbed  in 


150  NATIONAL    REFORM    AND    PRIMARY    MEETINGS. 

the  Greek  and  Roman  classics,  in  his  preparation  to  attend 
the  polls,  he  might  have  noticed  that  Mr.  Butler,  representa- 
tive in  Congress  for  the  Cambridge  district,  who  is  one  of  the 
"  educated  men,"  a  graduate  of  Bowdoin.  is  very  prompt  to 
attend  the  nominating  meetings,  and  so  is  his  friend,  Collector 
Simmons,  though  as  to  the  state  of  his  culture  we  are  not 
advised  ;  but  we  feel  sure  General  Butler  would  not  bestow 
upon  him  the  light  of  his  saintly  countenance,  if  the  Collector 
did  not  attend  promptly  "the  polls  and  the  nominating 
meetings."  Then,  too,  consider  another  of  the  educated  menr 
a  professor  at  Dartmouth  and  a  political  economist,  our 
servant  Senator  —  — ,  how  he  thrives,  he  lies  not,  neither 

does  he  steal ;  yet  Solomon,  in  his  best  financial  condition, 
had  not  so  much  Credit  Mobilier  stock  and  back  pay  in  the 
vaults  of  the  temple  as  he.  Mr.  Dana  doubtless  takes  too 
gloomy  a  view  of  the  state  of  culture  in  Congress  and  educa- 
tion at  the  polls. 

While  Mr.  Dana  has  unquestionably  inherited  very  fine  tal- 
ents, and  proved  himself  an  excellent  student  and  an  honored 
graduate  of  the  most  venerable  college  in  our  country,  it  is 
nevertheless  difficult  to  observe  any  such  remarkable  wisdom 
in  his  class  performance  as  to  mark  him  as  being  superior  to 
a  thousand  other  students  who  graduate  every  year.  As  a 
sensible  gentleman,  which,  without  doubt,  he  is,  he  must  feel 
that  his  admiring  friend  has  given  him,  in  comparison  with 
venerable  scholars,  an  undue  amount  of  space  in  the  editorial 
columns  of  the  Old  and  New,  making  it  painfully  manifest 
that  with  the  writer  thereof  social  considerations  outweighed 
the  merits  of  Mr.  Dana's  literary  performance.  The  subject 
upon  which  Mr.  Dana  discourses  has  been  one  of  common 
discussion  in  the  public  press,  especially  since  the  people 
became  alarmed  at  the  general  corruption  and  lack  of  fidelity 
in  public  servants,  incident  to  the  moral  evils  engendered  by 
the  civil  war,  and  particularly  since  the  late  congressional 
investigations  and  the  developments  resulting  therefrom  ; 


NATIONAL    REFORM    AND    PRIMARY    MEETINGS.  151 

while  the  arguments  and  suggestions  of  Mr.  Dana  are  by  no 
means  new  or  superior  in  thought  and  style  to  the  thousand 
and  one  newspaper  articles  upon  the  same  subject,  nor  loy  far 
so  elaborate  and  interesting  as  Prof.  Moses  Coit  Tyler's 
papers  on  the  same  subject  a  year  or  two  since  in  the  New 
York  Independent.  There  is  not,  it  is  believed,  any  diversity 
of  opinion  as  to  the  duty  of  educated  men  to  take  an  interest 
in  public  affairs  and  to  attend  the  nominating  meetings,  and  if 
any  gentleman  in  Cambridge  has  heretofore  been  indifferent  to 
his  duties,  he  cannot  do  better  than  to  attend,  at  an  early  day, 
the  primary  meetings  in  the  Essex  congressional  district.  The 
opportunity  will  soon  present  itself  for  young  Mr.  Dana,  and 
all  his  educated  friends,  to  rebuke  Gen.  Butler  for  his  sarcastic 
sneer,  on  the  occasion  of  a  former  canvass,  when  he  ignored 
the  young  gentleman's  father,  Richard  H.  Dana,  Jr.,  as  an 
opposing  candidate,  who  had  been  nominated  by  a  convention 
of  anti-Butler  men  composed  of  the  educated,  most  wealthy 
and  aristocratic  Republicans  of  that  famous  old  district, 
declaring  that  the  Democratic  candidate  was  his  (Butler's) 
only  competitor.  The  force  of  the  sneer  will  be  appreciated 
when  it  is  remembered  that  the  number  of  Democratic  voters 
in  that  district  are  hardly  worth  the  counting. 

And  now  that  young  Mr.  Dana  has  determined  his  mission 
to  be  national  reform,  and  resolved  to  accomplish  it  by 
attending  the  polls  and  nominating  meetings,  starting  in  life 
as  he  does  with  the  happy  advantages  of  education,  exalted 
social  position,  fortified  in  his  spirit  with  a  just  pride  that 
poetry  and  law  are  the  traditions  of  his  house,  nothing  will 
retard  his  future  progress  if  he  will  but  melt  the  icebergs  in 
his  inherited  blood  by  the  infusion  of  a  little  warmth,  mingle 
in  genuine  sympathy  and  cordiality  with  the  people,  and  they 
may  place  him  in  the  councils  of  the  nation,  where  they  have 
never  yet  placed  his  father,  though  a  civilian  of  the  highest 
order  and  the  first  advocate  of  the  Boston  bar  since  Rufus 
Choate. 


152        RECOLLECTIONS  OF  THE  HAWAIIAN  CHANCELLOR. 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  THE  HAWAIIAN  CHANCELLOR. 


TN  the  winter  of  1847-8,  there  was  a  pleasant  and  genial 
•*•  gentleman,  whose  home  was  the  United  States  Hotel  in 
Boston,  who  was  a  native  of  that  city,  but  for  several  years 
had  been  a  practicing  lawyer  in  the  State  of  Maine  and  at  one 
time  Speaker  of  the  House  of  Representatives  of  that 
State.  He  was  rather  under  the  medium  size,  but  had  a 
remarkably  fine  personal  presence,  dignified,  but  very  kind 
and  friendly  in  his  manners.  There  was  a  charm  about  him 
on  account  of  his  quiet  and  affable  social  intercourse.  He 
warmed  his  feet  at  the  anthracite  grate  and  looked  seriously 
into  the  bright  burning  coals  as  if  he  saw  therein  nations, 
peoples,  continents  and  the  islands  of  the  sea,  and  talked 
pleasantly  of  politics  and '  the  affairs  of  the  world  gen- 
erally. Would  the  Democrats  nominate  Cass  or  Wood- 
bury  ?  The  Democrats  in  the  Massachusetts  Legislature 
had  pronounced  for  the  latter.  Would  the  Whigs  nominate 
Webster  or  General  Ta}rlor,  were  the  common  place  inquiries 
of  the  day,  in  which  he  took  a  thoughtful  interest.  Some- 
times Rufus  Choate  would  drop  in  and  hold  an  animated  chat 
with  the  vivacious  but  reflective  gentleman,  and  his  sad  and 
sorrowful  eyes  would  dilate  and  sparkle  at  some  witty  remark 
of  his  friend,  and  then  he  would  hasten  on  to  the  opening  of 
the  court  and  the  trial  of  some  great  case.  Then  the  bright 
little  man  would  come  into  the  Legislative  hall  and  cosily 
chat  with  Banks.  Boutwell,  Burlingame  and  Wilson,  and  then 
off  he  would  go.  We  met  him  at  the  levee  of  the  Speaker  of 
the  House,  Francis  B.  Crowningshield,  and  noted  the  kindly 
deference  to  him  b}'  Gov.  Briggs  and  Abbott  Lawrence,  before 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  THE  HAWAIIAN  CHANCELLOR.         153 

President  Taylor  had  made  him  Minister  to  England,  and 
B.  W.  Crowningshield,  the  venerable  Secretary  of  the  Navy 
tinder  Madison.  This  marked  and  attractive  personage  was 
Elisha  H.  Allen,  now  and  for  many  years  the  Chancellor  of 
the  Hawaiian  Kingdom. 

One  day  the  news  came  of  the  arrival  of  a  Boston  ship 
from  the  Pacific  Ocean,  and  revealed  the  discovery  of  gold 
at  Slitter's  Mill  in  California.  Then  came  the  evening  paper 
with  the  particulars,  and  Allen  was  mounted  upon  the  table 
in  the  great  reading  room  of  the  hotel,  and  read  to  the 
densely  packed  room  the  strange  and  startling  intelligence  of 
the  wonderful  discover}'.  In  a  few  days  the  city  was  active 
with  excited  and  eager  people.  Ships  were  laden  at  the 
docks  with  merchandise  for  that  almost  unheard-of  coast, 
even  before  the  county  became  aroused.  Allen  became  at 
once  a  seer,  a  prophet  and  an  oracle.  Instantly  he  seemed 
to  be  perfectly  intelligent  about  the  Rocky  Mountains,  the 
slopes  and  valleys  of  the  Pacific  coast,  and  prophesied  grand 
things  for  that  distant  region,  all  of  which  and  more  have 
been  fulfilled.  He  pointed  out  to  us  the  routes  by  the  Horn, 
Darien,  Tehauntepec  and  overland  by  Texas  and  Santa  Fe, 
and  explained  how  easy  it  was  to  go  ;  told  us  of  the  Golden 
Gate  and  San  Diego,  where  Rickard  H.  Dana,  Jr.,  carried 
hides  on  his  back  when  he  was  getting  the  experience  and 
material  for  his  "  Two  Years  Before  the  Mast." 

While  the  gold  excitement  was  growing  more  and  more 
intense,  in  came  a  steamer  from  Liverpool  with  the  exciting 
intelligence  of  the  fall  of  the  throne  of  Louis  Philippe,  his 
escape  and  the  institution  of  the  French  republic  with 
Lamartine  as  President  and  Ledru  Rollin  as  the  great  leader 
of  the  people.  Allen  was  again  pressed  to  mount  the  table 
and  read  the  news  and  comments  upon  the  startling  events  in 
Paris,  which  he  did  with  great  enthusiasm  and  spirit. 

A  few  years  afterwards  we  heard  of  Elisha  H.  Allen  as  a 
lawyer  and  politician  in  San  Francisco.  Still  later  we  had  an 


154        RECOLLECTIONS  OF  THE  HAWAIIAN  CHANCELLOR. 

indefinite  and  indistinct  intimation  of  his  presence  in 
Honolulu.  Subsequently  we  heard  of  him  as  Attorney  Gen- 
eral or  chief  legal  adviser  of  the  king,  and  later  still  Chief 
Justice  and  finally  Chancellor  of  the  kingdom  of  Hawaii.  We 
have  heard  something  of  his  great  personal  popularity  with 
the  king  and  the  people;  of  his  judicial  services  and  his 
preparation  of  a  code  of  laws  and  its  adoption  by  the  king 
and  his  final  promotion  to  the  Chancellorship  of  the  king- 
dom. From  our  knowledge  and  recollection  of  him  we  can 
see  how  naturally  this  has  all  come  to  pass.  He  had  just 
the  qualifications,  the  personal  qualities  and  the  genial  spirit 
to  make  a  king  or  an  emperor,  whether  of  France  or  of  the 
Cannibal  Islands,  freeze  to  him  as  a  good  reliable,  honest  and 
genial  soul,  learned  in  the  law  and  clear  as  the  sun,  and  one 
who  sees  far  into  the  future  of  peoples,  races  and  institu- 
tions. A  few  months  ago  the  Chancellor  arrived  at  Wash- 
ington as  the  diplomatic  representative  of  the  Hawaiian  king- 
dom, and  now  (1874)  he  is  followed  by  the  king  himself. 
What  is  up  we  do  not  know,  but  doubtless  something 
more  in  reciprocity  and  commercial  treaties. 


REUNION    OF    THE    ORIGINALS.  155 


REUNION  OF  THE  ORIGINALS. 


"  I  "HE  surviving  officers  of  the  Revolution  had  their  society 
•*•  of  the  Cincinnatus,  and  the  heroes  of  Bunker  Hill, 
Brandywine  and  Yorktown  were  wont  to  hold  their  reunions 
on  ever3r  succeeding  anniversary  of  the  Declaration ;  recount 
their  trials  and  struggles,  their  deeds  of  heroism  and  bravery  ; 
fight  over  again  the  old  battles,  and  shouldering  the  crutch 
showed  how  fields  were  won. 

Within  more  recent  memory  the  veterans  of  1812  have  had 
their  celebrations  and  conventions,  and  told  the  present  gener- 
ation the  story  of  Lundy's  Lane  and  Chippewa  ;  of  Scott  and 
Brown  and  McNeil ;  of  Plattsburg  and  McDonough  ;  of  Perry 
and  Lake  Erie.  And  now  (1874)  the  surviving  remnants  of  the 
original  Abolitionists,  after  a  lapse  of  nearly  ten  years  from 
the  close  of  their  great  thirty  years'  conflict  with  slavery, 
have  recently  held  a  four  day's  reunion  in  Chicago,  in  which 
hardy,  tough,  but  humane  and  noble  old  men  with  white 
beards  and  bald  heads,  and  gentle  old  ladies  in  caps  and 
spectacles,  have  greeted  old,  long  and  widely  separated 
comrades  and  compatriots  in  the  cause,  laughed  and  shed 
tears  of  joy  together;  recounted  their  early  trials  and 
struggles  in  behalf  of  humanity  and  an  enslaved  race  ; 
sorrowed  over  the  memory  of  insolent  and  murderous  mobs  ; 
told  of  the  early  indifference  and  opposition  of  the  churches, 
and  the  contumely  and  contempt  of  the  two  great  political 
parties  for  their  persons  and  their  cause,  and  rejoiced  in 
prayer  and  praise  and  song  for  the  final  triumph  of  the  slave, 
culminating  in  the  Proclamation  of  Emancipation. 

The   occasions  are   always   interesting   when   old  historic 


156  REUNION    OF    THE    ORIGINALS. 

veterans  of  hard  fought  fields,  whether  soldiers  of  a  war, 
pioneers  of  a  new  country,  or  the  originators  of  a  new  code, 
moral  or  political,  meet  to  show  their  scars  and  rejoice  in  the 
victory  for  the  right.  The  memory  of  struggles,  hardships 
and  personal  sacrifices,  in  the  day  of  triumph,  is  rather 
pleasant.  The  event  was  one  of  exceeding  interest,  attested 
})y  the  constant  daily  attendance  of  the  principal  and  most 
intelligent  people  of  the  city. 

While  we  have  a  little  lingering  regard  for  the  memoiy  of 
"Webster  and  Choate,  Clay  and  Calhoun,  Ewing  and  Berrien, 
Silas  Wright  and  Stephen  A.  Douglas,  and  other  statesmen  of 
the  early  days  of  the  Republic,  we  cannot  think  with  some 
that  all  of  virtue,  wisdom  and  statesmanship  was  confined  to 
the  circle  of  the  old  abolitionists.  Nevertheless  we  are  not 
unhappy,  and  think  they  are  entitled  to  a  jubilee.  It  seems  a 
little  odd  to  read  an  account  of  an  abolition  convention, 
where  a  hundred  may  have  spoken  or  read  a  paper,  and  find 
not  once  the  names  of  Garrison,  Phillips  or  Abby  Kelley 
Foster  among  the  participants.  Mr.  Garrison  could  not  be 
there,  but  Oliver  Johnson's  paper  on  the  Nestor  of  the  aboli- 
tionists was  very  readable  and  interesting.  Dr.  Edward 
Beecher's  on  the  martyred  Lovejoy  and  Mr.  Birney's  on  Mr. 
Bailey,  editor  of  the  National  Era,  were  among  the  best. 
The  paper  of  A.  G.  Riddle  on  Joshua  R.  Giddings  was  an 
admirable  one,  treating  the  subject  uniquely  and  quite  out  of 
the  stereotyped  biographical  style,  drawing  not  only  a  vivid 
picture  of  the  dreaming  and  thinking  youth,  chopping  in  the 
maple  forests  of  Ohio,  milking  the  cows  and  turning  the 
grindstone,  and  suffering  all  the  visitations  of  a  Yankee  boy  ; 
but  also  the  brave  defender  of  the  right  of  petition — the 
•coadjutor  of  Adams  and  Hale  —  the  Ajax  of  the  old 
Congress,  and  making  the  history  of  the  Joshua  of  the 
Abolitionists  hardly  less  interesting  than  the  story  of  him 
before  whom  Jericho  fell  and  at  whose  command  the  sun 
stood  still  on  Gibeon  and  the  moon  in  the  valley  of  Ajalon. 


REUNION    OF    THE    ORIGINALS. 


15T 


Now  that  the  great  war  is  over,  and  the  old  veterans  have 
passed  and  are  passing  away,  the  asperities  engendered  of 
political  rivalries  and  adverse  opinions  becoming  lessened  by 
the  departure  alike  of  enemies  and  friends,  such  a  view  and 
commentary  as  we  find  in  Mr.  Riddle's  tribute  will  tend  to  a. 
higher  and  more  generous  appreciation  of  the  life  and  labors 
of  the  old  Abolition  statesman  of  the  Reserve. 

There  are  links  in  the  chain  of  history.  What  if  one  had 
been  broken  ?  Trivial  circumstances  have  sometimes  choked 
up  the  stream  of  histor}'  and  changed  the  current  of  the  per- 
petually flowing  river.  How  differently  history  would  have 
been  written,  had  the  multitude  of  Jerusalem  demanded  the 
release  of  other  than  Barabbas  !  But  for  beef  and  ale  in  the 
stomach  of  Elizabeth,  the  death  warrant  of  Mary  would  not 
have  been  signed.  Had  no  hostile  gun  been  fired  on  Fort 
Sumter,  the  old  Slavery  and  Abolition  conflict  would  be  as 
vigorous  and  "irrepressible"  now  as  in  the  days  of  Kansas 
and  Lecompton.  No  "  bull  against  the  comet "  would  have 
been  promulgated,  and  the  veterans  of  the  thirt}^  years'  war 
against  slavery  would  have  had  no  such  reunion  as  of  late, 
and  no  historical  relics  to  exhibit  in  the  rusty  and  broken 
manacles  of  the  slave.  Virtue  has  its  reward.  Prayer  is 
good,  but  even  in  the  conflict  of  ages  between  freedom  and 
slavery  the  Lord  is  on  the  side  of  the  heaviest  battalions. 


158  OUR    GUESTS    OF    THE    S^NGERFEST. 


OUR  GUESTS  OF  THE  S^ENGERFEST. 


A  \7 HO  are  they  and  whence  did  they  come?  The  great 
*  Caesar  knew  their  ancestors,  when  he  met  the 
Nervii  in  the  gloomy  forests  of  Belgia,  when  the  well 
equipped  legions  of  Rome  would  have  lost  their  eagles 
but  for  the  personal  prowess  of  the  world's  great  command- 
er. He  knew  them  as  allied  soldiers  at  Pharsalia,  when  the 
renowned  Batavian  cavalry  decided  the  fortunes  of  the  field, 
making  his  rival  an  exile  in  Egypt  and  himself  emperor  and 
heir  of  the  world.  They  are  the  descendants  of  the  heroes 
of  the  Nibelungenlied,  the  Homer  of  the  Teutonic  race.  They 
are  the  inheritors  of  the  valor  of  Conrad,  and  the  Hohen- 
zollern  —  of  Barbarossa,  whose  blood,  impetuous  as  the 
Berserker, 

"Would  not  halt 
At  Milan's  ashes  sown  with  salt." 

They  are  the  men  of  the  needle  gun, 

"  Who  held  the  Frank  in  grip  of  steel, 
'Twixt  red  Sedan  and  Vionville. 

They  came  from  the  dales  and  valleys  of  the  Schwarz 
mountains  and  the  sources  of  the  Rhine — from  the  slopes  of 
the  Carpathians  and  the  tributaries  of  the  upper  Danube  ; 
from  the  Waal  and  the  Scheldt ;  from  the  stormy  coasts  of 
the  Baltic  and  the  lowlands  of  the  Zuyder  Zee.  They  are 
the  representatives  of  all  the  kingdoms,  principalities  and 
States  of  the  German  empire,  where  they  were  once  the  deni- 
zens of  walled  cities,  gray  with  age  and  older  than  the  ruined 
castles  of  the  Rhine,  where  the  arts  and  sciences  flourished, 


OUR    GUESTS    OF    THE    SyENGERFEST.  159 

and  types  were  set,  and  books  were  printed,  when  America 
was  yet  an  undiscovered  forest.  All  are  readers,  many  are 
scholars,  graduates  of  universities  that  were  renowned  four 
hundred  years  before  the  humble  foundations  of  Harvard  and 
Yale  were  laid.  Among  them  are  clergymen,  lawyers,  physi- 
cians, historians,  Egyptologists  —  readers  of  the  cuniform  in- 
scriptions—  and  to  whom  the  Vedas  and  the  Sanskrit  are  as 
readable  as  the  vernacular  of  the  fatherland  ;  and  the  subtle 
philosophies  of  Kant,  Spinoza  and  Hegel  are  only  light  read- 
ing. 

These  educated,  reflecting  Germans,  imbued  with  ideas  of 
individuality  and  personal  independence,  despising  the  arti- 
ficial distinctions  and  shams  engrafted  upon  society  and 
government  in  the  fatherland,  could  not  deferentially  salute 
their  intellectual  inferiors  —  the  petty  kings  and  princes, 
inheritors  of  government  antl  feudal  castles — whom  Castelar 
so  aptly  characterizes  as  "relics  of  the  Middle  Ages,  ignesfatui 
in  the  graveA'ard  of  history,"  and  are  now  free  citizens  of 
America,  distributed  over  this  broad  land  and  taking  just  and 
equal  rank  in  social  life,  and  as  freemen,  politicians  and 
statesmen  under  the  Constitution.  With  the  art  and  taste 
cultivated  in  the  schools  of  Germany  they  are  by  education 
universally  adepts  in  vocal  and  instrumental  music,  and  have 
brought  with  them  not  only  the  sad,  weird  strains  of  Auber 
and  the  rich  elaborations  of  the  French  Rossini,  but  the  more 
wonderful  and  elaborate  combinations  of  the  Mendelssohns, 
the  Von  Webers  and  Beethovens — the  world's  great  German 
masters  of  musical  composition.  Being  here,  and  the  music 
in  them,  it  must  come  out.  No  German  can  die  with  all  his 
music  in  him. 

It  is  a  noble  virtue  and  a  highly  commendable  quality  of 
the  German  heart  and  mind,  that,  while  devoted  to  the  land 
of  their  adoption,  they  keep  in  loved  remembrance  the  father- 
land ;  dwelling  upon  her  history  ;  rejoicing  with  pride  in  her 
.advancement  and  her  victories  ;  cherishing  her  poetr}^  and 


160  OUR    GUESTS    OF    THE    S^NGERFEST. 

legendary  lore,  and  still  delighting  in  the  weird  folk-lore  of 
the  Harz  Mountains  —  Kyffhaeuser — and  the  ravens  flitting 
around  the  old  imperial  knight  in  the  crystal  cave  of  Rossen- 
beard. 

We  have  reasons,  historical  as  well  as  personal,  to  give  a 
generous  welcome  and  greeting  to  our  guests  to-day.  Prussia 
disciplined  the  army  of  the  Revolution  by  her  Von  Steuben. 
The  friendly  and  liberal  Netherlander  gave  an  asylum  to  the 
English  exiles  and  early  colonists,  who  found  homes  and 
friends  for  }~ears  in  the  cities  of  the  Dikes,  Ley  den,  Amster- 
dam, Rotterdam  and  Delft  Haven  ;  and  many  merchants  and 
burghers  of  those  renowned  old  cities  came  also,  and  New 
York  was  made  famous  for  her  Knickerbockers,  Ten  Broecks, 
Van  Rensselaers  and  Van  Dams  ;  and  the  Highlands  of  the 
beautiful  Hudson,  classical  in  the  legend  of  Rip  Van  Winkle  ! 

A  generous  government  and  -people  extends  a  welcome 
alike  to  every  nation,  kindred  and  tongue  beyond  the 
Atlantic.  But  to-day,  here  and  now  (1874),  Cleveland  puts 
on  her  best  attire,  hangs  out  her  banners,  opens  her  heart, 
and  extends  her  hand  to  her  German  guests,  and  to  the 
sweet  singers  of  the  Nineteenth  North  American  Saengerfest.. 


TRUTH    AT    LAST    AND    BY    A    WOMAN.  161 


TRUTH  AT  LAST  AND  BY  A  WOMAN. 


T  T  AIL  historic  truth  !  For  eighteen  years  the  cohorts  of 
"  political  falsehood,  mounted  upon  cantankerous  nags, 
booted  and  spurred,  with  visors  of  brass  and  breastplates  of 
boar-skins,  have  trampled  and  crushed  to  the  earth  honest 
historic  truth.  Occasionally  an  unmailed  knight  of  the  press 
has  sallied  out  and  made  a  dash  for  the  rescue,  but  only  to  be 
unhorsed  and  trampled  in  the  dust.  Falsehood  in  tatters  of 
malignity,  leprous  and  on  crutches,  will  travel  faster  and 
reach  more  believing  ears  than  truth  in  robes  of  light  on 
electric  wires. 

It  is  sad  to  contemplate  the  vast  number  of  people,  other- 
wise not  only  intelligent,  but  whose  reading  is  careful  and 
whose  minds  are  critical,  who  believe  with  the  sincerity  with 
which  the  Christian  believes  in  the  advent  and  the  resurrec- 
tion, that  the  late  Chief  Justice  Taney  personally  held  the 
opinion,  and  judicially  declared  in  the  case  of  Dred  Scott  as 
being  law,  that  the  negro  race  "  had  no  rights  which  the  white 
man  was  bound  to  respect."  It  has  ever  seemed  to  be  con- 
ceded by  his  cotemporaries  and  by  history,  that  Judge 
Taney  was  not  only  not  a  monster  in  his  nature,  nor  a  tyrant 
in  his  character  and  disposition ;  but  as  a  lawyer,  a  judge  and 
a  man  he  possessed  the  same  noble  attributes  and  high  sense 
of  personal  and  professional  honor  characteristic  of  his  great 
cotemporaries  of  the  American  bar  ;  the  patience,  gentleness, 
judicial  fairness  and  learning  of  his  renowned  predecessor, 
Marshall ;  as  religiously  conscientious  as  Ellsworth,  and  as 
pure  in  his  private  and  official  life  as  the  late  lamented  Chase, 
11 


162  TRUTH    AT    LAST    AND    BY    A    WOMAN. 

while  he  was  as  much  (and  no  more)  a  political  abolitionist 
as  the  present  able  but  modest  and  unpretentious  Chief 
Justice  Waite. 

In  the  last  decade  of  the  thirty  years'  conflict  between 
freedom  and  slavery,  so  white  was  the  heat,  so  aroused  and 
persistent  was  the  antagonism,  that  a  judicial  recognition  of 
the  constitution  and  laws  which  had  tolerated  and  maintained 
slavery  for  more  than  two  generations,  sustained  by  the 
arguments  of  great  lawyers  from  the  days  of  Prudence 
Crandall  to  Anthony  Burns,  by  statesmen  of  all  the  early 
political  parties  ;  which  never  before  had  made  a  ripple  of 
public  agitation  when  a  human  being  had  been  consigned  to 
slavery  under  its  provisions,  and  for  which  there  was  no 
remed}'  save  the  impossible  one  of  amending  the  constitution 
or  obliterating  the  institutions  of  slavery  by  revolution  and 
war.  Judge  Taney's  name  was  suddenly  loaded  with  oppro- 
brium, and  an  avenging  spirit  followed  him  into  the  grave 
and  blackened  his  memory.  Qualities  of  heart  and  mind 
were  attributed  to  him  which  he  never  possessed,  and  a  truth 
in  history  which  he  stated  in  illustration  of  the  sentiment 
England  and  every  civilized  nation  of  Europe  entertained 
more  than  a  century  before,  regarding  an  unfortunate  race, 
and  man's  inhumanity  to  man  in  every  age  and  country,  was 
cruelty  and  wantonly  bruited  over  the  land  as  the  personal 
and  judicial  sentiments  of  the  Chief  Justice  and  his  pro- 
nounced law  in  the  case.  When  "  Christian  statesmen  "  have 
been  admonished  of  their  disingenuousness,  as  they  have  been 
a  thousand  times,  the  result  has  been  nothing  but  a  reiteration 
of  the  perverted  history.  Perhaps  the  most  remarkable 
instance  of  this  unmanly  distortion  of  truth  was  when 
Mr.  Sumner  made  his  angry  philippic  in  opposition  to  the 
resolution  for  placing  the  marble  bust  of  the  Chief  Justice  in 
its  appropriate  nitch  in  the  Supreme  Court  room — the  only 
instance  probabl}'  in  which  his  intensity  of  feeling  so  far 
overcame  his  cultured  mind  and  critical  regard  for  historical 


TRUTH    AT    LAST    AND    BY    A    WOMAN.  163 

exactness  as  to  suffer  him  to  indorse  by  the  utterance  of  his 
lips  the  stale  perversions  of  the  stump. 

And  now,  after  the  Chief  Justice  has  lain  in  his  grave  for  ten 
years,  comes  a  noble  woman  from  out  the  ranks  of  those  who 
have  ever  execrated  his  memory,  and  reads  the  words  of  the 
Dred  Scott  decision  and  speaks  the  truth  concerning — "What 
did  the  Chief  Justice  say  ?"  This  woman  is  Gail  Hamilton, 
who  disdains  political  or  clerical  quibbles,  and  who  often 
confounds  orthodox  brethren  with  uncrackable  nuts.  She 
speaks  through  the  New  York  Independent,  whose  seven 
editorial  divines  and  innumerable  D.  D.'s  and  scholarly 
contributors  have  done  quite  as  much  to  unjustly  prejudice 
the  public  mind  against  the  living,  and  the  memory  of  the 
dead  judge  as  all  the  other  metropolitan  journals  put  togeth- 
er. Although  we  have  quoted  the  language  of  the  court  so 
many  times,  it  seems  necessary  to  do  so  now  to  make  the 
judgment  and  comments  of  the  able  and  truthful  woman  more 
fully  appreciated.  The  words  are  these  : 

"  It  is  difficult  at  this  day  to  realize  the  state  of  public 
opinion  in  relation  to  that  unfortunate  race,  which  prevailed 
in  the  civilized  and  enlightened  portions  of  the  world  at  the 
time  of  the  Declaration  of  Independence  and  when  the  Con- 
stitution of  the  United  States  was  framed  and  adopted. 
But  the  public  history  of  every  European  .nation  displaj's  it 
in  a  manner  too  plain  to  be  mistaken.  They  had  for  more 
than  a  century  before  been  regarded  as  beings  of  an  inferior 
order  and  altogether  unfit  to  associate  with  the  white  race, 
either  in  social  or  political  relations,  and  so  far  inferior  that 
they  had  no  rights  which  the  white  man  was  bound  to  respect, 
and  that  the  negro  might  justly  and  lawfully  be  reduced  to 
slavery  for  his  benefit.  This  opinion  was  at 

that  time  fixed  and  universal  in  the  civilized  portion  of  the 
white  race.  And  in  no  nation  was  this  opinion 

more  firmly  fixed  or  more  uniformly  acted  upon  than  by  the 
English  Government  and  English  people.  *  *  *  *  The 


164  TRUTH    AT    LAST    AND    BY    A    WOMAN. 

opinion   thus    entertained  and  acted  upon  in  England  was 
naturally  impressed  upon  the  colonies  the}T  founded  on  this 
side  of  the  Atlantic.     We  refer  to  these  historical  facts  for 
the  purpose  of  showing  the  fixed  opinions  concerning  that 
race  upon  which  the  statesmen  of  that  da}r  spoke  and  acted." 
Gail  Hamilton  comments  thereon  as  follows : 
"Do  not  the  heartlessness,  the  recklessness,  the  indiffer- 
ence to  human  and  to  constitutional  rights,  to  civil  and  moral 
laws,  which  were  supposed  to  characterize  the  wicked  Chief 
Justice  and  to  inspire  his  decision — do  they  not  faint  grad- 
uall}'  and  disappear  before  these  simple,  deliberate,   and  far 
from  heartless  words  ?     We  find  that  he  is  not  pronouncing 
his  opinion  as  to  the  present  status  of  the  negro  ;  but  present- 
ing what  was  his  status  a  hundred  years  ago  and  what  had 
been  his  status  a  hundred  years  before.    So  far  from  asserting 
that  the  negro  has  now  no  rights  which  the  white  man  is 
bound  to  respect,  he  implies  a  change  of  opinion  so  great,  that 
it  is  difficult  now  for  us  even  to  believe  that  the  contrary 
opinion  ever  prevailed.     So  far  from  cruelly  sealing  the  doom 
of  these  hopeless  Pariahs,  he  speaks  of  it  repeatedly  with 
sensibility  and  compassion.      I  do  not  say  that  his  decisions 
were  not  swayed  by  passion  or  prejudice,  or  power ;  but  the 
language  is  calm  and  judicial,  and  the  negro  is  never  referred 
to  but  in  such  terms  of  respectful  pity,  sympathy,  and  recog- 
nition of  manhood  as  befit  the  dignity  of  the  supreme  bench. 
I  think  it  could  have  been  only  the  high  wrought,  yes,  and 
the  justly,  effectively  and  divinely* wrought  indignation  of  the 
hour  and  the  cause  which  wrested  these  words  from  their 
real  significance  and  turned  them  not  only  into  a  mighty 
engine  of  war,  but  also  into  a  weapon  destructive  of  the  peace 
and  fair  fame  of  their  original  fabricator.      Slavery  was  a 
crime  and  an  evil  too  great  to  be  exaggerated.      No  wrath 
against  it  could  wax  overhot ;  yet  sometimes  the  flame  leaped 
out  and  devoured  other  than  its  meet  and  proper  fuel. 

|n  Describing  the  condition  of  the 


TRUTH    AT    LAST    AND    BY    A    WOMAN.  165 

negro  at  the  time  of  the  adoption  of  the  Constitution,  I  cannot 
see  that  the  Chief  Justice  pronounced  or  meant  to  pronounce 
his  doom  for  all  future  ages,  or  to  view  with  entire  satisfac- 
tion his  fate  in  the  present  age.  In  the  great  conflict  then 
upon  us  he  took  the  losing  side.  He  failed  to  see  through  a 
glass  darkly  what  other  men  saw  clearly.  Words  that  to 
others  seemed  luminous  and  elastic,  seemed  to  him  gloomy 
and  iron  bound.  But  there  is  nothing  to  show  that  he  did 
this  from  dishonorable  motives  or  in  an  inhuman  manner. 
It  is  sad  enough  that  his  name  is  recorded  among  those  who 
gave  to  slavery  its  last  support,  and  gave  it  while  the  sun  of 
freedom  was  risen  so  high  that  every  figure  was  brought  out 
into  full  view,  and  every  action  was  visible  to  a  watching  and 
resolute  world.  It  is  less  sad  than  unjust  that  he  should 
bear  the  reproach  of  words  that  he  did  not  speak  and  senti- 
ments that  he  did  not  feel." 

It  has  been  said  that  this  unjustifiable  and  unmanly 
perversion  of  the  words  of  the  court  was  first  made  by  Mr. 
Seward  to  intensify  the  "  irrepressible  conflict."  Whether 
this  ma}^  or  may  not  be  true,  the  editor  of  his  works  has  had 
the  weakness  to  assert  that  the  court  "  expressed  the  opinion 
that  free  colored  persons  whose  ancestors  were  imported  into 
this  country,  and  sold  as  slaves  'had  no  rights  which  the 
white  man  was  bound  to  respect.'  "  The  Chief  Justice  felt 
keenly  the  wrong  done  him  by  this  allegation,  the  fabrication 
of  which  he  attributed  to  Mr.  Seward,  and  is  understood  to 
have  said  if  Mr.  Seward  were  elected  President  he  would 
never  administer  to  him  the  oath  of  office.  Judge  Taney 
was  not  a  person  of  jealous  disposition,  or  one  who  talked  at 
random,  and  he  doubtless  knew  very  well  who  it  was  that 
either  in  public  speech  or  in  private  conversation  first  inflicted 
the  great  injustice.  Concerning  which  Gail  Hamilton  says  : 
"  If  this  were  true,  it  would  reflect  no  discredit  on  the  Chief 
Justice ;  but  on  the  contrary,  it  indicates  a  sensibility  which 
we  at  the  North  have  been  little  inclined  to  attribute  to  him." 


16G         TRUTH  AT  LAST  AND  BY  A  WOMAN. 

The  end  of  the  nineteenth  century  and  the  centennial  of  the 
nation  are  near  at  hand.  Statesmen  of  a  generation  are 
mostly  gone.  The  great  dominant  party  has  filled  its  mission 
and  is  disintegrating.  Old  men  are  genial  and  mellow.  Truth 
prevails,  and  Gail  Hamilton  is  the  goddess  of  history. 


ANCIENT  EGYPTIAN  BEER  GARDENS.          167 


ANCIENT  EGYPTIAN  BEER  GARDENS. 


TT  is  claimed  by  those  who  decipher  and  translate  the  hiero- 
gtyphics  upon  the  walls,  and  monoliths  scattered  among 
the  ruins  of  antiquit}',  that  evidence  exists  indicating  that  the 
Egyptians  had  knowledge  of  and  practiced  the  art  of  making 
lager  beer,  such  as  is  known  and  used  in  Europe  and  America 
at  the  present  day.  If  the  Champolions  and  Belzonis  are 
correct,  it  was  doubtless  a  valuable  and  comforting  beverage 
to  the  army  of  architects,  contractors  and  laborers  employed 
}>y  Sesostris  in  erecting  the  pyramids,  chiseling  the  sphinx, 
digging  the  canals  and  building  the  labyrinths.  It  is  not  im- 
possible that  Joseph  might  have  furnished  the  maltsters  and 
brewers  of  On  and  Pelusium  with  grain,  of  which  at  one  time 
he  had  the  monopoly,  and  controlled  the  market  during  a  por- 
tion of  his  Premiership.  Possib^  the  brothers  who  came 
down  from  Hebron  to  purchase  grain  for  the  eastern  market, 
and  were  surprised  to  find  that  the  person  who  made  a  corner 
in  grain  was  their  brother,  drank  lager  beer  with  Joseph 
drawn  from  the  deep  cool  vaults  in  the  king's  palace,  and 
likely  out  of  the  same  cup  that  was  mischievously  put  into  lit- 
tle Ben's  sack.  It  is  believed  that  Joseph's  personal  graces  and 
great  popularity,  in  a  measure,  were  due  to  the  circumstance 
that  he  drank  nothing  stronger  than  lager  beer,  but  having, 
through  sheer  literan'  modest}',  declined  to  write  a  treatise 
elucidating  the  popular  game  of  draw  poker  at  the  solicitation 
of  Mrs.  General  Potiphar,  the  court  influence  was  withdrawn 
from  him,  and  he  failed  of  a  third  term.  The  next  adminis- 
tration knew  him  not.  They  wouldn't  even  "give  the  old 
man  a  chance." 


168  ANCIENT    EGYPTIAN    BEER    GARDENS. 

When  Moses  was  a  boy,  the  pet  of  Miss  Pharaoh,  lager  was 
the  popular  court  drink.  Rameses  the  Great  always  laid  in 
his  stock  from  the  breweries  of  Thebes  and  Karnak,  as  it  was 
deemed  a  better  article  on  account  of  the  purity  of  the  upper 
over  the  lower  Nile  water.  The  long  and  sanguinary  war  be- 
tween Memphis  and  Thebes,  not  unlikely  grew  out  of  an  at- 
tempt of  the  brewers  of  the  Delta  to  impose  a  prohibitory  tariff 
on  the  upper  Nile  beer.  A  compromise  of  the  beer  question 
was  eventually  effected,  and  the  two  dynasties  were  consoli- 
dated. 

The  supposed  temple  at  Karnak,  whose  ruins  are  still  the 
wonder  of  the  world,  is  now  understood  to  have  been  the 
royal  lager  beer  hall,  and  the  Colossi  and  avenues  of  sphinxes 
but  the  embellishments  of  the  grandest  "garden"  of  anti- 
quit}^.  This  hall  and  garden,  antedating  by  thousands  of  years 
the  great-grandfather  of  the  German  Gambrinus,  would  prob- 
ably to-day  have  been  intact  and  in  as  good  a  state  of  preser- 
vation as  the  p3rramids,  had  it  not  been  for  old  Cambyses,  the 
great  Persian  destroyer.  He  destroyed  every  malt  house  and 
brewery  throughout  the  land,  caused  real  estate  to  feel  the 
effect  of  his  Adair  law,  and  thus  fulfilled  the  prophetic  denun- 
ciations, and  a  "cloud"  came  over  Egypt.  The  brewers  of 
the  Nile  fled  to  the  Danube  and  the  Rhine,  and  their  descend- 
ants made  beer  for  Attila  the  Hun  and  his  veterans,  and  Bar- 
barossa  and  the  berserkers. 

The  social  custom  of  drinking  the  mild  and  genial  lager  is 
of  great  antiquity  among  the  German  people,  from  the  em- 
peror to  the  peasantln  times  of  peace,  and  from  Von  Moltke 
to  the  drummer  boy  in  times  of  war.  The  great  guns  who 
thundered  theology  in  the  Church  drank  a  little  lager  for  the 
stomach's  sake.  Calvin  moderated  his  harsh  and  dogmatic 
spirit  occasionally  by  a  slight  draft  of  Geneva  beer,  but  his  ill 
treatment  of  Servetus  and  his  gloomy  forebodings  respecting 
the  salvation  of  infants  prevailed  continually  over  its  cheer- 
ing influences.  Martin  Luther  stuck  to  his  lager,  and  was 


ANCIENT  EGYPTIAN  BEER  GARDENS.          169 

greatly  sustained  thereby  in  his  great  conflict  against  the  old 
ecclesiastical  powers,  and  he  was  encouraged  and  comforted 
through  the  Reformation  by  men  and  women  whose  daily 
beverage  was  the  national  cordial. 

The  old  antipathies  to  the  German  habits  and  customs 
which  formerl}'  prevailed  in  this  country  are  giving  way  by 
degrees,  and  clergymen  and  philanthropists  now  testify  their 
preferences  for  the  social  customs  and  habits  of  the  German 
people  over  those  of  the  whisky  drinking  native.  Mr.  Joseph 
Hatton,  the  best  of  English  writers  on  societ}r  and  institutions 
in  the  United  States,  in  his  recent  book  entitled,  "  To-day  in 
America, "  in  a  chapter  on  Chicago,  where  he  attended  the 
great  race  in  which  "Maud  S."  eclipsed  "St.  Julian,"  says: 
"Wine,  lager  beer  and  Apollinaris  water  were  the  liquors 
mostly  consumed  at  the  bar  on  the  stand.  On  an  English 
course  brandy  and  whisk}'  would  have  been  the  chief  drinks, 
modified  by  a  little  soda  water.  I  have  often  said  that  lager 
beer  is  the  salvation  of  America  from  a  temperance  point  of 
view.  I  did  not  see  a  drunken  man  at  the  Chicago  races. 
Our  constant  consumption  of  spirits  and  strong  beer  in  Eng- 
land gives  us  an  overwhelming  percentage  of  drunkenness  on 
holiday  occasions  compared  with  similar  affairs  in  the  United 
States.  I  am  often  told  the  difference  belongs  to  climatic  con- 
ditions. I  do  not  believe  it.  America  used  to  intoxicate 
herself  quite  as  much  as  England  before  lager  beer  became 
the  popular  and  general  drink  of  the  country."  The  Rev. 
Robert  Collyer  discoures  pleasantly  and  approvingly  to  the 
Germans  of  Chicago  upon  the  German  American  gardens,  and 
the  last  article  which  Gerritt  Smith  wrote  was  for  the  Chicago 
Advance,  in  which  he  took  strong  ground  against  prohibiting 
German  lager  beer  gardens.  He  said  :  "  Let  me  here  remark 
that,  whether  lager  be  or  be  not  intoxicating,  I  would  not 
have  the  government  array  itself  against  German  beer  gar- 
dens." The  reason  he  gave  was  that  it  was  a  social  custom 
and  enjoyment  of  the  Germans. 


170     MENTOR  AND  THE  MECCA  OF  THE  MORMONS. 


MENTOR  AND  THE  MECCA  OF  THE  MORMONS. 


"^PO  avoid  the  monotonous  inanities  of  a  desolate  and 
dreary  Sunday,  incident  to  the  life  of  the  undomesticated 
Clevelander,  I  made  on  a  Saturday  in  June,  1875,  a  pilgrim- 
age to  the  richest  and  loveliest  farming  town  in  Northern  Ohio. 
Taking  the  Lake  Shore  train  east  about  half  past  four  in  the 
afternoon,  without  any  very  definite  idea  of  where  I  should 
go,  or  where  I  should  get  off,  I  gave  the  go-by  to  such  well- 
known  and  pleasant  stations  as  Glenville,  Colamer,  Euclid 
and  Willoughby,  and  might  have  gone  on  to  the  old  Giddings 
district  had  not  the  genial  conductor,  about  three  miles  west 
of  Painesville,  opened  the  door  and  shouted  "Mentor!"  at 
which  every  brakeman  on  the  train  echoed  the  same  shiboleth, 
and  indicated  to  me,  by  a  very  significant  look  and  gesture, 
that  it  was  his  intention  to  let  me  off,  which  he  did,  at  that 
pleasant  little  station.  Finding  myself  standing  on  a  plat- 
form without  any  political  planks  in  it,  and  having  no  hand- 
book to  instruct  me  which  was  the  best  hotel,  I  sought  shel- 
ter at  the  hospitable  home  of  a  sturdy  farmer,  whose  name 
was,  as  I  then  supposed,  the  only  one  I  knew  in  the  town 
which  I  had  then  entered  for  the  first  time  in  my  life.  I 
found  the  latch  string  on  the  outside,  and  the  master  of  a 
substantial  brick  mansion,  embowered  among  stately  pines, 
sycamores  and  locusts,  and  the  lord  of  a  hundred  and  twenty- 
live  acres,  unsurpassed  for  quality  of  soil  and  unmatched  for 
the  beauty  of  its  undulations,  clear  streams,  scattered  trees  of 
elm,  butternut  and  walnut,  extensive  orchards,  and  a  twenty- 
acre  park  of  primeval  forest  trees  —  welcomed  us  with  some- 
thing like  the  spirit  of  a  Rhoderick  I)hu  : 


MENTOR  AND  THE  MECCA  OF  THE  MORMONS.     171 

"  Come  sit  ye  down  and  with  us  share 
A  farmer's  couch  and  a  farmer's  fare." 

Upwards  of  fifty  acres  of  William  Heisley's  farm  is  covered 
with  wheat,  r}Te,  oats,  corn  and  potatoes,  all  remarkably  ad- 
vanced and  flourishing  for  the  season.  Two  span  of  horses,  a 
large  flock  of  sheep  with  lambs,  and  a  herd  of  sixteen  choice- 
bred  heifers,  together  with  "Bismarck"  the  bull,  Prince  of 
New  Jersey,  constitute  the -elements  from  which  the  enter- 
prising proprietor  is  destined  to  win  fame  and  fortune  as  the 
breeder  of  "  noble  bloods." 

Other  Cleveland  gentlemen  have  spied  out  the  beauty  of 
the  homes  and  the  fatness  of  the  Mentor  farms.  Col.  G-.  F. 
Lewis,  George  H.  Kidney  and  others  have  lately  purchased 
very  rich  looking  places.  Dr.  J.  P.  Robison  is  the  lord  of 
many  acres  here,  cheerful  and  neighborly,  and  has  great  de- 
light in  that  his  once  proteye,  General  James  A.  Garfield,  is 
his  neighbor.  While  all  the  highways,  byways,  and  cross 
streets  in  this  wonderful  farming  town  seem  to  show  equally 
fine  farms  and  tasteful  homes,  yet  the  main  avenue  through 
the  town,  from  east  to  west,  more  especially  reminds  one  of  a 
continuation  of  our  own  Euclid  avenue.  This  avenue  is  a 
sort  of  continuous  village,  and  the  historical  interest  of  the 
town  concentrates  along  the  old  turnpike  which  our  New 
England  fathers  traveled,  and  by  which  they  settled  when 
from  fifty  to  seventy  years  ago  they  came  to  "The  'Hio." 

Before  De  Witt  Clinton  and  the  Erie  canal,  before  canvas 
was  spread  to  the  breeze  above  Niagara,  before  Fulton's  in- 
vention enlivened  the  waters  of  Lake  Erie  with  floating  pal- 
aces, and  the  harbors  of  the  lakes  were  alive  with  screw  pro- 
pellers and  sidewheel  steamers,  the  yellow  coach  of  four  and 
six  sped  along  this  old  highway,  and  the  crack  of  the  coach- 
man's whip  and  blast  from  his  bugle  awakened  more  echoes 
and  more  women  and  children  to.  enthusiasm  and  delight 
than  the  scream  of  the  whistle  and  the  thunderous  roll  of  the 
fiery  giant  that  to-day  plunges  along  the  railway  a  few  rods 


172     MENTOR  AND  THE  MECCA  OF  THE  MORMONS. 

distant  from  the  ancient  thoroughfare.  Here  the  old  veterans 
lived  that  voted  for  Adams  and  Jefferson  and  Madison,  heard 
the  thunder  of  Perry's  guns,  and  rejoiced  in  the  results  of  the 
war  of  1812.  Boys  born  on  this  fine  old  street  found  graves 
at  Monterey,  Vera  Cruz  and  Chapultepec  in  1846,  and  scores 
of  them  lie  in  unrecognized  but  honored  graves,  from  the 
Beautiful  river  to  the  sea,  slain  to  save  their  country. 

Here,  too,  in  1835,  the  zealous  and  fiery  G-randison  Newell 
organized  his  platoon  of  kindred  spirits,  and  upon  the  thresh- 
old of  a  Christian  church  stoned  Orson  Pratt,  the  disciple  of 
the  prophet  of  Mormon  and  priest  of  the  church  of  Latter 
Day  Saints,  of  Kirtland.  Here  Joseph,  whose  surname  was 
Smith,  and  Hirum,  his  brother,  were  wont  to  be  seen,  and  the 
scrip  and  shin-plasters,  wild-cat  and  red-dog — the  greenbacks 
of  the  First  Holy  National  Bank  of  Mormon  —  were  wont  to 
circulate,  under  misgivings  and  protests,  till  the  fullness  of 
time,  when  all  mismanaged  banks,  sacred  and  profane  alike, 
must  burst. 

We  spoke  with  at  least  two  elderly  gentlemen  who  were 
present,  and,  perhaps,  who  held  the  garments  of  those  who 
stoned  the  prophets  of  Mormon  with  second-hand  eggs.  But 
ideas,  faith — wise  or  foolish — will  not  down  at  stones  or  eggs. 
Pharaoh's  chariot  lies  in  the  Red  Sea.  The  dens  of  the  wild 
beasts  are  choked  up  and  the  arches  of  the  Coliseum  have 
crumbled,  but  the  Church  still  lives.  The  platoon  of  Mentor 
egg  sharpshooters  are  mostly  in  their  graves,  but  the  Mor- 
mons are  a  nation  unto  themselves,  and  successfully  clef}*  the 
government  and  laws  of  the  United  States. 

Being  only  four  miles  from  the  first  temple  of  the  Latter 
Day  Saints,  I  could  not  forego  the  convenient  opportunity  to 
visit  the  Kirtland  temple.  So  about  four  o'clock  Sunday  the 
handsome  bays  were  harnessed,  and  in  half  an  hour  we  had 
glided  over  the  smooth  hill  roads  to  one  of  the  most  romantic 
villages  I  have  ever  seen  in  Ohio.  If  I  do  not  accept  the 
philosophy  or  cherish  the  faith  of  the  Latter  Da}r  Saints,  I 


MENTOR  AND  THE  MECCA  OF  THE  MORMONS.     173 

certainly  admire  the  good  taste  in  the  selection  of  the  site  of 
their  first  temple.  The  building  itself  is  very  large,  but  by 
no  means  handsome.  It  seems  to  be  an  architectural  cross 
between  an  old  Connecticut  Presbyterian  meeting  house  and 
a  Rhode  Island  cotton  factory.  It  stands  upon  a  high  bluff 
on  the  west  bank  of  a  branch  of  the  Chagrin  river,  facing  the 
rising  sun.  It  overlooks  other  lesser  mounts  and  deep  val- 
leys, like  those  around  Jerusalem.  The  principal  one,  lying 
on  the  east,  is  as  delightful  as  the  vale  of  Avoca,  where  the 
bright  waters  meet.  It  is  the  valley  of  Jehoshaphat  to  the 
modern  temple  builders,  and  the  beautiful  stream  that  mean- 
ders through  its  fine  meadows  is  to  this  valley  what  the  sweet 
gliding  Kidron  is  in  the  legends  of  the  dark-eyed  and  scat- 
tered children  of  Judah. 

The  shades  of  a  lovely  evening  were  approaching,  the  "  low- 
ing herd  were  winding  o'er  the  lea,  and  drowsy  tinklings 
lulled  the  distant  fold,"  and  we  took  our  departure  from  this 
serene  and  quiet  place. 

The  good  people  of  Kirtland,  whose  hearts  are  cheered  and 
gladdened  by  a  dearer  and  more  ancient  faith,  should,  never- 
theless, cherish  this  old  temple  as  a  land  mark  in  the  proces- 
sions of  the  generations.  Preserve  it.  Utilize  it  as  a  town 
house,  and  three  thousand  years  hence,  when  the  English  lan- 
guage shall  be  laid  beside  the  Latin,  Greek  and  Sanskrit  as 
dead,  learned  professors  and  enthusiastic  students  will  come 
to  the  ruins  of  the  temple  of  Mormon  to  try  to  divine  some- 
thing of  the  old  faith,  and  to  decipher  and  translate  the  legend 
and  inscription  upon  the  tablet  above  its  portals. 


174  EXPOSITION    OF    MARITAL    PRODUCTS. 


EXPOSITION  OF  MARITAL  PRODUCTS. 


JV/T  OTHERS  and  Fathers,  Ladies  and  Gentlemen  :  More 
•*'*'*•  than  twenty  years  ago  I  attended  the  first  National 
Fair  ever  held  in  the  United  States.  It  was  at  Springfield, 
Mass.,  and  was  under  the  management  of  a  gentleman  well 
known  in  this  city,  Mr.  George  M.  Atwater.  Assembled  there 
were  the  Governors  of  many  States,  and  it  was  not  a  baby 
show  either.  Among  those  who  were  introduced  and  made 
brief  addresses  on  the  day  set  apart  for  such  exercises  was  the 
genial  and  witty  Governor  Colby,  of  New  Hampshire.  He 
said  as  he  had  been  introduced  as  a  Governor  he  was  much 
embarrassed,  and  felt  it  his  duty  to  explain  that  in  his  State 
they  did  not  elect  their  ablest  men  for  Governors  ;  they  sent 
such,  he  said,  to  Congress,  and  took  only  very  ordinary  men 
for  Governors.  I  feel  inclined  to  explain  to  this  audience 
that  the  managers  of  this  beautiful  exposition  had  made 
strenuous  efforts  to  obtain  one  of  three  prominent  and  circum- 
spect bachelors  of  this  city  to  perform  the  pleasant  service  to 
which  I  have  been  invited,  but  they  all,  of  one  accord,  began 
to  make  excuse.  The  first,  a  physician,  had  a  hypochondriac 
patient  that  required  a  change  of  treatment,  and  he  could 
not  come.  The  second  had  a  viaduct  contract  with  "  mill- 
ions in  it,"  which  "he  must  needs  attend  to  and  fulfill, 
and  he  begged  to  be  excused.  The  third  and  last  had  been 
elected  to  Congress  "with  all  that  that  implies,"  and  he 
therefore  could  not  come.  So  the  managers  have  been  com- 
pelled to  place  in  this  position  one  less  adapted  to  the 
requirements  of  the  occasion. 

To  me  this  scene  is  peasant,  but  it  inspires  me  with  no- 


EXPOSITION    OP    MARITAL    PRODUCTS.  175- 

mirth  or  humor,  but  rather  soberness  and  reflection,  and 
hence  I  anticipate  your  disappointment  as  I  feel  the  managers' 
one  great  mistake.  I  rejoice  that  the  people  have  a  way  of 
punishing  wealthy  and  accomplished  bachelors  who  neglect 
the  one  great  social  duty.  It  is  severe,  and  it  is  often  hard 
for  them  to  bear.  If  our  indignation  is  terribly  aroused  we 
set  him  up  as  a  candidate  for  the  Presidency,  and  then  knock 
him  down  with  a  Returning  Board.  If  our  prejudices  are 
not  very  strong  on  account  of  his  many  redeeming  qualities, 
we  send  him  to  Congress  for  two  years,  and  if  he  returns 
without  having  married  some  beautiful  blonde  Countess  of 
Coupons  in  the  Treasury  Department,  we  will  probably  send 
him  back  for  two  years  more. 

That  pleasant  and  affectionate  poet,  Dr.  Holland,  has  writ- 
ten many  lines  which  have  touched  the  hearts  of  mothers  in 
every  land.  Among  them  we  find  his  sweetest  of  Christmas 
carols  : 

"  There  is  a  song  in  the  air ! 
There  is  a  star  in  the  sky  ! 
,  There  is  a  mother's  deep  praj^er, 

And  a  baby's  low  cry  !" 
*#*•*# 

Then  there  is 

"  Cheek  or  chin,  knuckle  or  knee, 
Where  shall  the  baby's  dimple  be?" 
•fc          #          •&          *          *          * 

And 

"Who  can  tell  what,  a  baby  thinks? 
Who  can  follow  the  gossamer  links 

By  which  the  Manakin  feels  his  way 
Out  from  the  shore  of  the  great  unknown, 
Blind  and  wailing  and  alone, 

Into  the  light  of  day?'' 

But  a  more  sublime  mystery  than  the  possible  thought 
of  an  infant  is  that  touching  life  itself,  the  spirit  which,  for 


176  EXPOSITION    OF    MARITAL    PRODUCTS. 

the  want  of  more  definite  terms,  has  been  beautifully 
expressed  as  the  breath  of  God.  It  was  a  mystery  in  the 
valley  of  the  Euphrates  ;  it  was  a  mystery  when  the  beautiful 
Aspasia  listened  to  the  wisdom  of  Socrates  ;  it  is  a  mystery 
to  the  savans  of  modern  days,  and  will  continue  a  mystery 
more  mysterious  than  the  oscillations  of  the  ocean,  when 
time  shall  lapse,  and  man  shall  be  a  fossil  on  its  shore.  The 
secret  and  invisible  forces  in  nature,  evety  day  being  revealed 
in  the  progress  of  science,  still  fall  short  of  a  revelation  of 
the  principle  of  life.  The  wonderful  forces  of  electricit}T,  as 
manifested  in  the  telegraph,  have  not,  it  is  said,  been  yet  half 
revealed.  We  have  felt  the  power  of  a  woman's  tear,  but 
until  recently  told  by  a  distinguished  citizen  and  telegraph 
projector,  we  did  not  know  that  there  was  power  in  a  woman's 
tear  sufficient  to  force  an  electric  current  through  the  Atlantic 
cable  strong  enough  to  communicate  a  message — and  yet  the 
principle  of  life  is  unexplained.  If  I  was  inclined  to  idolatry 
I  would  bow  m}Tself  in  adoration  before  the  noble  woman 
who  has  passed  through  the  great  crisis,  and  has  risked  her 
life  to  bestow  happiness  upon  man.  To  those  noble  matrons 
who  have  so  proudly  and  affectionately  contributed  to  the 
success  of  this  fascinating  and  delightful  exhibition  of  the 
babies  of  the  period,  I  tender  my  profoundest  respect,  and 
assure  them  that  each  devoted  mother  may  feel  the  pride  of 
Cornelia,  the  daughter  of  Scipio  Africanus,  who,  when  the 
rich  Campanian  lad}^  asked  to  inspect  her  jewels,  pointed  to 
her  children,  saying,  "  These  are  my  jewels  and  ornaments." 


THE  PAST  AND  THE  FUTURE.  177 


THE  PAST  AND  THE  FUTURE. 


EWAKD,  Chase,  Sumner — the  great  triumvirs — are  dead. 
The  party  they  created  and  led  is  apparently  disintegrat- 
ing and  dissolving,  while  the  name  and  fame  of  each  is  still 
fresh  in  our  memories  ;  while  the  garlands  are  unwithered  on 
their  caskets,  and  before  the  first  green  grass  has  been  clipped 
on  their  graves.  What  is  man  ?  What  is  fame,  and  what 
are  parties  ?  They  but  make  up  the  processions  of  the 
generations,  and  the  pall  of  oblivion  soon  covers  them  all. 

It  seems  but  a  brief  time  since,  when  a  lad,  we  were  puzzled 
and  perplexed'  by  the  bitter  and  acrimonious  spirit  engendered 
in  families  and  pervading  school  districts  and  country  neigh- 
borhoods through  political  anti-masonry.  The  breezes  that 
blew  from  the  State  of  New  York  more  than  forty  years  ago, 
wafted  the  name  of  William  H.  Seward  over  the  green  hills  of 
New  England.  The  names  of  his  celebrated  coadjutors, 
Francis  Granger,  whose  stately  for/m  and  silver  gray  locks  in 
later  years  were  not  unfamiliar  upon  the  streets  of  Cleveland, 
and  Thurlow  Weed,  were  noised  abroad  upon  the  same  winds. 
Then  they  were  ambitious  young  politicans,  bound  to  make 
unto  themselves  a  name,  to  raise  the  dead  Morgan  or  breathe 
the  breath  of  life  into  a  new  party. 

We  have  known  something  in  later  years  of  the  strange 
and  senseless  bitterness  and  animosit3T,  which  too  often  mars 
the  honorable  rivalry  of  partisans  and  statesmen,  but  nothing 
ever  held  a  candle  to  anti-masonry  for  downright  neighbor- 
hood quarrels  and  social  "  unpleasantness."  But  the  tree 
bore  golden  apples  for  those  who  planted  it.  It  proved  the 
stepping-stone  to  statesmanship  for  Mr.  Seward.  It  made 
12 


178  THE  PAST  AND  THE  FUTURK. 

Granger  a  cabinet  minister,  and  Weed  a  celebrated  journalist. 
Wealth  also  followed  fast  upon  the  heels  of  fame  and  over- 
took them  all. 

Twenty  years  after  our  juvenile  happiness  was,  for  a  season, 
destroyed  by  these  early  anti-masonic  statesmen,  before  they 
had  become  "silver  grays,"  we  heard  in  Boston  the  first 
mutterings  which  eventually  culminated  in  first  the  division, 
and  then  the  dissolution  of  the  proud  and  historical  Whig 
party.  The  wedges  that  rifted  the  rock  were  such  words  as 
"  conscience "  and  "  cotton,"  bandied  between  two  eminent 
gentlemen  of  that  party,  Otis  P.  Lord  and  Edward  L.  Keyes, 
in  a  discussion  in  the  Massachusetts  Legislature  in  1848. 
The  Whig  party  was  then  in  the  zenith  of  its  splendor. 
Webster  had  not  pronounced  a  presidential  nomination  "  not 
fit  to  be  made  ;"  Choate  had  not  then  written  "  glittering 
generalities  "  nor  carried  the  flag  and  "kept  step  to  the  music 
of  the  Union  "  in  the  Buchanan  campaign  ;  Clay,  Crittenden, 
Mangum,  Berrien,  Ewing  and  Corwin,  with  others  alike 
eminent,  were  contributing  each  his  part  to  make  the  Senate 
of  the  United  States  the  most  renowned  deliberative  body  in 
the  world. 

These  innocent  words,  "conscience"  and  "cotton,"  in  a 
single  legislative  session  augmented  in  force  and  significance 
till  they  became,  between  members  of  the  Whig  party,  the 
keenest  and  most  pungent  terms  of  irony  and  ridicule.  About 
this  time  a  dozen  gentlemen  of  the  "  conscience  "  wing  invited 
an  equal  number  of  members  of  the  humble  Democratic 
minority  to  meet  Charles  Sumner  at  a  private  supper  at 
George  Young's,  the  Delmonico's  of  Boston.  Then  and  there, 
for  the  first  time  in  political  history,  did  men  of  opposite 
parties  meet  socialty,  exchange  sentiments  and  compare  views 
looking  to  ultimate  joint  political  action  in  the  State. 

Mr.  Sumner's  distinctions  at  that  time  were  only  social  and 
scholarly.  Politically  he  was  only  an  earnest  and  pronounced 
enemy  to  slavery.  Around  the  table  sat  Sumner,  Boutwell, 


THE  PAST  AND  THE  FUTURE.  179 

Banks,  Burlingame,  Wilson,  Andrew,  Win.  S.  Robinson, 
Edward  L.  Keyes  and  Frank  W.  Bird,  the  latter  the  promoter 
of  the  celebrated  Bird  Club  of  later  years. 

The  impression  the  writer  obtained  at  that  time  of  Mr. 
Sumner  was  that  of  an  earnest  and  honest  man,  who  felt  that 
the  slavery  question  overshadowed  all  other  subjects.  He 
would  compromise  and  waive  the  whole  category  of  political 
questions  save  one.  Democrats  must  repent  and  be  saved 
from  the  one  great  national  sin.  His  subsequent  career  as  a 
statesman  illustrated  his  singleness  and  sincerity  of  purpose: 
The  seed  sown  around  that  social  board,  at  first  no  larger 
than  a  mustard  seed,  grew  to  a  tree,  and  politicians  and 
statesmen  lodged  in  the  branches  thereof.  It  resulted  at 
least  in  making  the  political  fortunes  of  Boutwell,  Banks  and 
Wilson,  and  in  less  than  three  }^ears  placed  Sumner  in  the 
vacant  chair  of  Webster,  and  ultimately  made  Burlingame 
Minister  to  China,  and  afterwards  Chinese  Embassador  to  the 
four  Western  Powers. 

Afterwards  we  were  not  unfamiliar  with  the  brilliant  career 
of  Ohio's  distinguished  Senator  and  great  financial  secreta^ 
during  the  war — and  especially  did  we  appreciate  his  prestige 
and  power  in  the  well  remembered  campaign  when  he  can- 
vassed the  State  for  governor.  It  was  a  severe  and  hotly 
contested  struggle,  fought  against  one  who  was  his  peer  in 
such  a  field,  and  from  whom  the  future  Chief  Justice  barely 
escaped  with  the  flag. 

Had  one  man,  whom  a  generous  and  forgiving  party  have 
since  honored  with  the  highest  marks  of  their  confidence  in 
later  years,  made  but  a  single  speech  for  the  Democratic 
candidate  for  governor  in  1857,  but  which  he  neglected  to  do, 
the  biographies  of  many  men  would  be  differently  written. 

But  what  of  the  future  ?  What  are  the  questions  which  are 
to  develop  the  statesmen  yet  to  come  ?  The  old  ones  are 
mostly  in  their  graves.  Fame  is  fickle  and  satisfies  the  soul 
of  none.  Mrs.  Hemans,  in  addressing  the  shade  of  Fame, 


180  THE  PAST  AND  THE  FUTURE. 

said  :  "Where  shall  the  lone  one  turn  or  flee  ? — Not  unto  theer 
not  to  thee  !" 

"  If  thus  that  gifted  one  could  sing, 

While  bending  o'er  her  country's  lyre, 
When  Fame  had  breathed  on  every  string, 

And  changed  it  to  a  golden  wire, 
That  quivered  'neath  her  gentlest  touch, 

And  glittered  in  her  fancy's  beams, 
Then  Fame  no  suerdon  is  for  such, 

And  fills  no  place  in  statesman's  dreams." 


HUMOR    AND    ITS    USES.  181 


HUMOR  AND  ITS  USES. 


"  A  RTEMUS  Ward"  commenced  his  career  as  a  humorist 
'**'  in  the  columns  of  the  Plain  Dealer.  We  well  remember 
the  first  little  blind  note  which  he  wrote,  ostensibly  from 
Pittsburgh,  but  actually  in  the  editorial  sanctum,  saying  to 
the  editor  that  he  was  on  his  way  to  Cleveland  with  his 
"  show  of  snaix  and  moral  wax  works,"  and  requesting  the 
editor  of  the  Plain  Dealer  to  give  him  a  good  notice  in  its 
•columns,  adding  that  he  would  have  all  his  show  bills  printed 
at  its  establishment,  and  further  holding  out  the  glittering  and 
tickling  inducement  to  its  proprietor — "  You  tickle  me,  and  I 
will  scratch  your  back."  This  odd  little  letter  was  the  seed 
from  which  grew  all  that  series  of  letters,  so  grave  and  earnest, 
so  eccentric,  facetious  and  rollicking,  which  enlivened  the 
columns  of  the  Plain  Dealer  for  several  years  and  made 
their  author  a  celebrity  at  home,  and  gave  him  a  pleasant 
recognition,  not  onty  among  the  wits  and  humorists,  but 
the  litterateurs,  publicists  and  statesmen  of  England. 

The  name  of  Charles  F.  Browne  is  handsomely  embalmed, 
in  elaborate  papers  in  the  great  London  Quarterlies,  as  hold- 
ing the  highest  place  among  American  humorists.  Grave 
and  stately  writers  upon  science  and  philosophy  like  Mill, 
Darwin  and  Tyndall,  enliven  their  pages  with  quaint  humor 
which  had  its  birth  in  the  sparkling  brain  of  our  facetious 
countryman.  Lecturers  in  the  Universities  of  Cambridge 
and  Oxford  give  piquancy  and  attractiveness  to  learned 
discourses  by  illustrations  drawn  from  the  same  source. 
Disraeli,  Derby  and  Russell  have  often  paid  the  tribute  of 
their  appreciation  of  American  humor  in  parliamentary  dis- 


182  HUMOR    AND    ITS    USES. 

cussions,  involving  the  budget  or  the  government  of  India,  bjr 
their  own  facetious  sallies,  modestly  covered  by  an  "  as 
Artemus  Ward  would  say." 

We  all  remember  those  acrimonious  and  exacting  political 
years  just  prior  to  the  war,  when  "Bleeding  Kansas,"  John 
"  Candlebox  "  and  the  Lecompton  Constitution  were  the  daily 
newspaper  themes.  It  was  in  those  years  that  Mr.  Ward  was 
showing  his  "  snaix  and  great  moral  wax  works "  through 
the  country,  and  making  himself  the  protot}rpe  of  Barnum, 
adding  letters  and  literature  to  his  attractive  calling.  It  was 
also  the  years  when  many  people  were  greatly  interested  in 
the  phenomena  of  spiritual  manifestations,  and  the  wonderful 
works  wrought  through  the  medium  of  the  Fox  girls,  and 
when  many  good  people  believed,  as  they  still  do,  that  a 
mediumistic  telegraph  had  been  established  between  the 
living  and  the  dead,  between  time  and  eternity,  and  were 
annoyed  by  a  class  of  long  haired  vagabond  philosophers  who 
brought  the  subject  into  disrepute  by  associating  it  with  free 
love  doctrines  and  practices.  Artemus  gave  such  attention 
to  this  class  of  characters,  "who  devoured  honest  people's  beef 
barrels,"  that  they  soon  ceased  to  "  investigate  "  in  regions 
where  the  Plain  Dealer  was  read. 

Perhaps  the  first  realizing  sense  which  the  public  took  of 
the  practical  value  of  Artemus'  ridicule,  was  when  he 
"  exhibited  "  at  Berlin  Heights,  where  a  society  of  reputed 
free  lovers  most  did  congregate,  and  where  the  fat  lady  of 
some  three  hundred  pounds  tonnage  rushed  to  embrace  him 
at  the  door  of  his  tent,  when  he  was  taking  tickets,  declaring 
that  she  had  at  last  found  her  "  affinity  "  for  whom  she  had 
yearned  all  her  life.  Mr.  Ward  repulsed  her,  saying  that  she 
had  made  a  mistake,  that  he  was  a  married  man  and  that  his 
wife,  Betsy  Jane,  was  living  in  Baldwinsville,  Indiana,  and 
that  he  was  the  father  of  "  twins,  twins,  madam — and  I  am 
happy  to  say  they  look  like  me."  She  cried  out,  asking  if 
his  bowels  had  never  yearned  for  her  in  the  long  years,  and 


HUMOR    AND    ITS    USES.  183 

he  coldly  replied,  "  Not  a  bowel,  not  a  yearn."  The  Berlin 
Heights  letter  was  regarded  as  one  of  his  best.  It  did  more 
to  make  the  "affinity"  nonsense  ridiculous  than  the  argu- 
ments of  a  thousand  logicians  or  the  combined  influence  of  a 
legion  of  doctors  of  divinity. 

Mr.  Ward  made  an  imaginary  visit  to  Montreal  when  the 
Prince  of  Wales  was  there,  and  was  admitted  to  an  audience. 
They  became  mutually  interested  in  each  other.  The  show- 
man was  so  frank  as  to  say  to  the  Prince,  "  Albert  Edward, 
you  soot  me."  He  gave  the  Prince  a  free  pass  to  see  the 
snaix  and  intimated  that  he  should  compliment  his  mother, 
the  Queen,  and  her  husband  in  the  same  way  when  he  visited 
the  old  country  with  his  moral  wax  works.  Inquired  earnestly 
as  to  the  state  of  his  mother's  health,  and  gave  the  Prince  a 
nudge  with  his  elbow  and  asked  him  if  "the  old  man  continued 
to  take  his  ale  regular." 

In  the  first  year  of  the  war  Artemus  attempted  to  make  a 
tour  of  the  Confederacy.  He  was  so  pronounced  in  his 
Union  sentiments,  that  the  Confederates  undertook  to  break 
up  his  show  and  confiscate  his  property.  Anticipating  the 
possibility  of  some  such  trouble,  Mr.  Ward  had  taken  the 
precaution  and  incurred  the  expense,  very  judiciously,  of 
adding  to  his  zoological  department  a  "young  but  very 
healthy  tiger"  —  the  same  "little  cuss"  that  bit  off  the  show- 
man's thumb.  When  the  fire-eaters  began  to  tear  down  the 
tent,  Artemus  Ward  drew  the  bars  of  the  cage  and  let  loose 
the  tiger.  There  was  a  sudden  retreat,  and  not  in  very  good 
order.  After  about  half  an  hour  the  tiger  returned,  like  the 
dove  to  the  Ark,  "  with  a  well  selected  assortment  of  seats  of 
pantaloons  in  his  mouth."  The  result  was,  according  to  the 
showman,  "  they  did  not  confisticate  him  muchly." 

Mr.  Ward's  patriotic  expressions  touching  the  rebellion 
contain  very  keen  irony,  and  they  were  universally  appre- 
ciated at  the  time,  for  they  happily  illustrated  a  kind  of 
humbug  patriotism  which  was  rather  too  familiar  during  the 


184  HUMOR    AND    ITS    USES. 

war,  and  his  utterances  have  since  been  flung  into  the  faces 
of  selfish  and  pretended  patriots  in  Europe.  He  announced 
that  he  was  so  determined  in  favor  of  putting  down  the 
Rebellion,  that  he  was  willing  to  sacrifice  all  his  wife's  rela- 
tions* 

When  the  showman  found  the  "  Head  Center  "  at  Delmoni- 
"co's  at  midnight,  indulging  in  cold  duck  and  a  bottle  of  green 
seal,  and  proposed  to  the  patriot  that  if  there  was  another 
bottle  of  green  seal  in  the  house,  he  had  no  objection  to  suffer 
with  him  in  the  cause  of  down-trodden  Ireland,  the  bubble 
burst  and  servant  girls  ceased  to  contribute  of  their  earnings 
to  support  valiant  dead-beats  who  proposed  to  sink  the 
British  navy  with  a  single  sloop. 

Whether  Artemus  Ward  had  any  plan  or  purpose  in  direct- 
ing his  sallies  of  wit  and  ridicule,  or  whether  it  so  happened 
merely  from  the  circumstances  that  natural  and  common 
topics  presented  a  vulnerable  and  ludicrous  side,  which  his 
facetious  disposition  could  not  refrain  from  noting  in  his 
journalistic  career,  is  not  very  clear  ;  but  certainty  it  is  true 
that  his  ever  overflowing  humor  had  the  merit  of  utility.  It 
made  his  readers  laugh,  which  is  good  in  itself,  and  made 
glaringly  apparent  many  humbugs  and  follies,  that  otherwise 
might  have  had  a  longer  and  more  successful  career. 

The  character  of  showman  which  he  assumed  was  unique  ; 
he  imitated  no  predecessor  in  that  character.  He  was  enabled 
thereby  to  remove  himself  from  the  sameness  and  common 
place  of  the  office,  and  "  exhibit "  in  Canada,  Berlin  Heights, 
or  Mississippi  in  the  same  week,  spend  Sunday  "in  the 
bosom  "  of  his  imaginary  family  at  Baldwinsville,  Indiana, 
adore  Betsey  Jane,  dandle  the  "  twins,"  and  come  up  to  the 
Plain  Dealer  fresh  and  bright  for  the  next  week's  work. 

Artemus  Ward's  books  had  the  misfortune  of  being  cheaply 
and  poorly  illustrated  by  some  one  who  seemed  to  have  no 
just  appreciation  of  the  wit  and  humor  of  the  writer,  or 
conception  of  the  character  of  the  shrewd  and  jolly  showman. 


HUMOR    AND    ITS    USES.  185 

The  best  delineation  of  the  exhibitor  of  moral  wax  works  was 
a  portrait  drawn  by  Mr.  George  Hoyt  some  fifteen  years  ago, 
who  was  then,  as  now,  connected  with  the  Plain  Dealer,  and 
which  for  many  years  graced  its  sanctum.  It  should  have  a 
place  in  the  historical  rooms  beside  the  skull  of  the  mastodon 
or  the  Rosetta  stone.  The  same  gentleman  made  illustrations 
complete  for  the  first  book,  which,  had  they  not  unfortunately 
been  lost  on  their  way  to  New  York,  would  have  given 
"Artemus  Ward  His  Book"  an  artistic  interest,  and  our 
pleasant  artist  who  sketched  them  a  reputation,  in  that  line, 
as  meritorious  as  that  of  Nast. 

There  was  much  more  in  the  mind  of  Charles  F.  Browne 
than  wit  and  humor.  He  could  write  and  talk  seriously  and 
well:  After  he  had  been  drawn  into  that  rich  burlesque 
•"  lecturing,"  which  proved  to  be  quite  as  taking  and  much 
more  profitable,  he  remarked  to  the  writer,  after  the  great 
ovation  that  was  given  him  at  the  Academy  of  Music,  that 
.he-  felt  a  sadness  and  sort  of  personal  humiliation,  when  he 
reflected  that  one  who  had  no  claims  upon  the  public  regard 
for  services  in  the  higher  walks  of  literature  or  art,  and  who 
had  only  made  an  effort  in  the  performance  of  his  daily 
journalistic  duties,  to  amuse  the  people  and  make  them 
cheerful,  should  be  greeted  and  honored,  not  only  at  his  own 
home  in  Cleveland,  but  everywhere  else,  with  audiences  as 
refined  and  cultured,  and  vastly  more  numerous,  than  those 
that  delighted  to  listen  to  the  classic  Everett  or  the  graceful 
Phillips. 

Neither  war,  pestilence  nor  famine  can  eradicate  our  love 
for  fun  and  genial  humor,  but  it  should  be  so  utilized  and 
directed  as  to  make  it  contribute  to  the  alleviation  of  the 
world's  three  great  calamities,  war,  pestilence,  and  famine  ; 
and  therefore,  perhaps,  our  fun-loving  friends  will  not  deem 
it  obtrusive  to  suggest  that  when  another  eight  hundred 
"healthy"  young  gentlemen  are  prompted  to  make  up  the 
.generous  purse  of  four  hundred  dollars  for  a  "wooden 


186  HUMOR    AND    ITS    USES. 

lecture,"  they  so  utilize  and  direct  the  proceeds  that  it  may 
find  its  way  into  the  treasury  of  the  noble  Bethel,  the  reticule 
of  the  Dorcas  ladies  or  the  cabins  of  the  suffering  Nebraska, 
pioneers. 


CUYAHOGA    IN    CONGRESS.  187 


CUYAHOGA  IN  CONGRESS. 


T70RTY  years  ago  John  W.  Allen  was  elected  the  first  rep- 
resentative  in  Congress  resident  in  this  count}*,  a  politi- 
cal friend  and  admirer  of  Clay  and  Webster  in  the  days  of 
their  great  achievements,  and  of  the  splendor  of  their  renown. 
The  honor  was  conferred  not  only  for  his  ability,  but  in  recog- 
nition of  his  enterprise  as  a  pioneer  citizen  in  all  the  interests, 
industries  and  railroad  enterprises  through  which  the  infant 
city  hoped  for  prosperit3r,  and  which,  by  reason  of  his  labors, 
eventually  resulted. 

The  memorable  campaign  of  1840  brought  out  as  the  next 
representative  the  learned  and  brilliant  advocate,  Sherlock  J. 
Andrews,  a  true  representative  then,  as  to-day,  of  a  people 
who  appreciate  intellectual  gifts,  and  admire  the  possessor 
of  Christian  graces. 

Edward  Wade  came  to  the  front  in  1854,  when  the  exigen- 
cies of  the  times  cemented  the  union  of  the  anti-slavery  men, 
and  the  disbanded  and  ruptured  elements  of  the  Whig  party 
with  the  free-soil  party,  in  opposition  to  the  repeal  of  the 
Missouri  compromise  resolutions  of  1820,  and  the  Kansas  and 
Nebraska  acts.  He  was  a  man  of  more  than  ordinary  ability, 
and  was  honored  for  his  devotion  to  the  cause  of  personal  lib- 
erty and  human  rights. 

Albert  Gr.  Riddle  entered  Congress  at  the  opening  of  the 
civil  war  in  1861.  A  young  and  accomplished  advocate,  ar- 
dent in  his  nature,  honest  in  purpose,  friendly  and  kind. 
Left  us  at  the  end  of  his  term  for  a  field  where  able  lawyers 
are  wont  to  congregate,  and  where  he  has  won  competency 


188  CUYAHOGA    IN    CONGRESS. 

.and  distinction  among  the  Cushings  and  the  Blacks,  and  holds 
what  he  has  won. 

The  demands  of  the  district,  in  the  most  gloomy  period  of 
the  rebellion,  called  for  a  jurist  and  statesman  in  the  person 
of  Rufus  P.  Spalding.  How  ably  and  satisfactorily  he  served 
the  people  may  be  found  in  scanning  the  votes  of  his  repeated 
reflections,  and  in  the  folios  of  the  Congressional  record. 
Learned  in  the  law,  and  imbued  with  the  principles  of  the 
^arly  statesmen  of  the  republic,  he  was  often  equal  to  the  ris- 
ing above  party  considerations ;  and  with  the  sternness  of  an 
autocrat  and  the  dignity  of  a  gentleman,  he  could  always  com- 
mand or  lead. 

Richard  C.  Parsons  was  elected  in  1872.  He  had  been 
carefully  educated  and  trained  for  political  life,  and  possessed, 
in  an  unusual  degree,  the  qualifications  necessary  for  success 
as  a  member  of  the  House  of  Representatives.  He  exercised  a 
wide  personal  and  political  influence  in  that  body,  and  his 
term  of  service  was  of  the  most  valuable  character  to  his  con- 
stituents. To  his  well  directed  labors  Cleveland  owes  her 
magnificent  harbor  of  refuge,  the  establishment  of  the  life 
saving  service,  the  transfer  of  the  Marine  Hospital  to  her  citi- 
zens, and  other  important  legislation  in  the  advancement  of 
her  interests.  He  was  unanimously  renominated  in  the  fall  of 
1874,  but  with  his  entire  part}'  ticket  in  the  district  was  de- 
feated. While  his  political  opponents  contributed  with  zeal- 
ous energy  to  the  defeat  of  his  party,  and  Mr.  Parsons  as  its 
congressional  candidate,  they  were,  nevertheless,  not  unmind- 
ful of  his  eminent  public  services  and  personal  merits,  his 
social  amenities  and  cultivated  tastes. 

Two  years  ago  (1874)  the  district,  by  a  majority  of  nearly 
three  thousand,  called  Henry  B.  Payne  to  a  seat  in  Congress. 
In  that  act  they  sought  and  obtained  ability  of  the  first  order, 
and  integrity  unquestioned.  No  man  who  gave  a  vote  for 
him  has  had  occasion  for  regret.  Forty  years  of  intellectual 
life  and  active  duties  as  a  citizen  have  made  him  known  of  all 


CUYAHOGA    IN    CONGRESS.  189* 

men  at  home.  How  well  the  judgment  of  the  district  has 
been  approved  by  the  best  representatives  at  the  National 
Capital  can  best  be  told  by  those  who  have  had  observation  of 
the  estimate  in  which  he  was  there  held.  From  the  moment 
of  taking  his  seat,  to  the  close  of  his  term,  no  other  in  the 
House  or  Senate  has  commanded  a  more  marked  and  distin- 
guished personal  recognition.  The  first  men  of  the  nation 
were  daily  gathered  around  him,  seeking  his  opinions  and  ex- 
changing civilities. 

Amos  Townsend  succeeded  to  the  representation  in  1876, 
and  is  now,  1882,  serving  his  third  term  in. Congress.  Mr. 
Townsend  is .  a  business  man  of  practical  sense  and  good 
judgment,  and  by  reason  thereof,  together  with  gentlemanly 
deportment,  unassuming  manners,  and  faithful  attention  to 
the  interests  of  his  district,  has  been  able  to  retain,  by  large 
majorities,  prestige  with  and  the  continued  confidence  and 
support  of  his  party.  The  appropriations  which  he  has  suc- 
ceeded in  securing  for  harbor  improvements,  and  the  enlarge- 
ment of  the  Custom  House  and  Post  Office,  are  doubtless  the 
most  permanent  and  manifest  monuments  of  his  respectable, 
and  honorable  public  career. 


190        LAFAYETTE  AND  THE  HEROES  OF  1812. 


LAFAYETTE  AND  THE  HEROES  OF  1812. 


"  The  summer  day  was  near  its  close, 
When  thousands  caught  the  wild  huzza, 

And  rushed  upon  their  crimson  foes 
At  Lundy's  Lane  and  Chippewa. 

When  Scott  and  Brown  their  laurels  gained, 
McNiel,  as  bright  a  wreath  was  thine — 

And  aged  men  shall  tell  again, 

Around  the  winter  evening's  fire, 
How  flashed  their  steel  at  Lundy's  Lane 

Above  the  waves  of  blood  and  ire." 

A  MONG  the  many  personal  and  historical  incidents  which 
"**•  Mr.  Thurlow  Weed  has  revived  and  illustrated  b}T  his 
contributions  to  the  press  in  recent  years,  none  have  served 
so  much  to  awaken  the  dim  and  shadowy  remembrances  of 
men  and  women  now  on  the  down  hill  of  life,  and  at  the  same 
time  to  give  to  the  younger  generation  a  vivid  and  pleasing 
reality  of  the  history  of  the  past,  than  the  account  given  by 
him,  some  year  or  two  since,  of  the  visit  of  LaFayette  to  this 
country  after  a  lapse  of  more  than  forty  years  from  the  time 
when,  in  his  early  manhood,  he  left  his  delightful  chateau  at 
La  Grange,  and  his  beautiful  young  wife,  to  aid  our  grand- 
fathers in  establishing  Constitutional  liberty  in  this  land. 

Mr.  Weed,  then  a  young  man,  was  one  of  the  committee  of 
reception  for  New  York,  among  wThom  were  Morgan  Lewis, 
Nicholas  Fish,  Philip  Van  Cortland,  Simon  De  Witt,  Henry 
A.  Livingston,  Philip  Hamilton  and  others. 

General  LaFayette  reached  New  York  on  the  15th  of  August, 


LAFAYETTE    AND    THE    HEROES    OF    1812.  191 

1824,  in  the  packet  ship  Cadmus,  accompanied  by  his  son, 
George  Washington  LaFa}Tette,  and  his  secretary. 

No  person  ever  landed  on  our  shores,  and  probably  never 
will  again,  who  awakened  in  the  hearts  of  the  people  such  in- 
tense and  generous  emotions  as  did  LaFayette.  A  series  of 
honors  and  festivities  of  the  metropolis  culminated  in  a  grand 
fete  at  Castle  Garden  on  the  evening  of  his  departure  for 
Albany. 

The  steamer  James  Kent,  chartered  by  the  cit}~,  received 
the  distinguished  guest  to  convey  him  up  the  beautiful  Hud- 
son. No  steamer  ever  bore  in  her  cabins,  and  on  her  decks, 
so  many  historical  names  of  the  Empire  State  and  so  many  of 
the  elite  of  the  city  as  on  that  occasion.  Among  the  ladies 
were  Mrs.  General  Lewis,  granddaughter  of  General  Wash- 
ington, Mrs.  Hamilton,  widow  of  Alexander  Hamilton  and 
daughter  of  General  Philip  Schuyler,  and  Miss  Frances 
Wright,  of  England. 

"Welcome,  LaFayette  !"  was  the  shout  of  greeting  from  the 
people  lining  the  banks  the  whole  distance.  A  dinner  was 
given  him  at  Clermont,  the  manor  house  of  Chancellor  Liv- 
ingston, of  Revolutionar}^  memory,  the  home  of  General  Mor- 
gan Lewis.  In  the  evening  there  was  a  grand  ball,  which 
was  opened  by  General  LaFa3'ette,  who  no  less  reverentially, 
than  gracefully  led  out  the  venerable  and  blind  widow  of  Gen- 
eral Montgomery — who  fell  in  the  assault  at  Quebec  in  1775 — 
amid  the  wildest  enthusiasm  of  all  present.  Here  beautiful 
women  had  for  partners  the  Livingstons,  the  Van  Nesses, 
the  Suydams,  and  the  Van  Rensselaers,  and  graceful  and 
charming  young  ladies,  the  flower  of  the  classic  Hudson, 
whirled  in  the  dance  with  Colonel  Huger,  of  South  Carolina, 
who  rescued  LaFayette  from  his  prison  at  Olmutz,  and  famous 
old  lawyers  like  Elisha  Williams  and  Ambrose  L.  Jordan. 

But  the  grand  military  reception  of  LaFayette  was  at  West 
Point.  Here  the  General  was  received  at  the  wharf  by  Col- 
onel Thayer,  and  escorted  by  the  cadets  to  his  marquee,  where 


192  LAFAYETTE    AND    THE    HEROES    OF    1812. 

they  paid  him  the  marching  salute,  after  which  he  proceeded 
to  the  marquee  of  Generals  Brown  and  Scott,  where  he  was 
presented  to  the  ladies  and  partook  of  refreshments.  Then 
followed  dinner  in  the  mess  room  of  the  cadets.  Colonel 
Thaj^er  and  Major  Worth  presided  at  either  end  of  the  table. 
General  LaFayette  and  General  Scott  were  seated  on  the  right, 
and  General  Brown  and  Colonel  Varick  on  the  left  of  the 
President.  Over  the  head  of  La  Fayette  was  a  large  eagle, 
holding  in  his  beak  a  streamer  bearing  the  legend,  "Septem- 
ber 6,  1777,"  and  "  Yorktown,"  grasped  by  his  talons. 

"At  the  review  of  the  cadets,"  says  Mr.  Weed,  "  Generals 
Brown  and  Scott,  in  full  uniform,  with  tall  plumes  in  their 
chapeaux,  stood  by  General  La  Fayfette.  The  three,  each  tow- 
ering more  than  six  feet  in  height,  made  a  magnificent  tab- 
leau." 

And  now,  after  a  lapse  of  fifty  years,  not  only  that  group 
of  stalwart  chieftans,  but  the  giant  McNiel,  "kin  of  the  Scot- 
tish Bruce,"  the  compeer  of  Brown  and  Scott,  and  perhaps  all 
of  that  grand  assemblage  have  gone  down  to  the  tomb,  leav- 
ing Mr.  Weed  alone  to  tell  the  tale  to  the  present  generation. 

While  the  pen  of  Mr.  Weed  discloses  the  outward  semblance 
of  the  historical  characters  of  that  day.  the  pen  of  one  of  the 
heroes  of  history,  even  when  emplo}'ed  in  writing  a  fraternal 
note,  cannot  fail  to  be  of  interest  to  the  public  who  at  this 
time  seek  to  know  something  of  the  domestic  and  personal 
history  of  the  heroes  of  1776  and  of  1812. 

The  writer  is  permitted,  though  with  family  delicacy  and 
reluctance,  to  contribute  an  item  from  the  pen  of  Major  Gen- 
eral Brown,  being  a  letter  addressed  to  his  brother,  Colonel 
Joseph  W.  Brown,  of  Brownsville,  the  family  seat,  in  Jefferson 
county,  N.  Y.,  in  1824,  a  few  months  before  the  arrival  of  La 
Fayette.  Col.  Brown,  to  whom  the  letter  is  addressed,  is  now 
(1876)  82  years  old,  and  a  resident  of  Cleveland.  Fifty  years 
have  cancelled  the  political  privacy  of  the  note.  It  is  written 
in  pencil,  as  was  the  custom  of  Gen.  Brown,  except  in  official 


LAFAYETTE  AND  THE  HEROES  OF  1812.        193 

papers,  and  is  as  bright  and  distinct  as  if  written  yesterday, 
so  carefully  has  it  been  preserved.     It  is  as  follows  : 

H.  Q.  W.,  Feb.  llth,  1824. 

My  Dear  Brother  :  I  am  at  a  loss  to  know  what  to  say  on 
the  subject  of  your  emigration  to  the  West.  It  is  to  me  a  try- 
ing question,  so  much  so,  that  I  believe  I  had  better  say  noth- 
ing. Mr.  Kirby  has  given  you  my  ideas,  better,  perhaps,  than 
I  could  do  it  nryself. 

The  judge  has  advised  me  of  your  taking  possession  of  my 
house.  As  he  found  it  best  to  leave  it,  I  am  content  with  the 
arrangement.  I  onl}-  ask,  and  I  do  it  with  much  confidence,  that 
you  will,  during  your  stay,  endeavor  to  preserve  the  premises. 
I  cannot  say  that  I  shall  be  there  again,  but  be  my  person 
where  it  ma}T,  my  mind  will  very  often  pass  over  those 
grounds.  The  lilac  bushes  near  the  office  were  designed  for 
my  yard,  and  as  they  are  a  hardy  bush,  and  to  my  taste  a 
very  handsome  one,  I  should  be  pleased  to  hear  that  they 
were  growing  as. I  had  designed. 

The  Congressional  caucus  will  not  display  much  strength — 
not  more  than  seventy  members  will  attend.  This  caucus  is 
considered  as  hostile  to  the  Administration  of  the  country. 
All  the  other  candidates  are  agreed  in  principle,  and  a  little 
time  will  now  determine  which  of  them  will  be  preferred  by 
those  who  agree  with  them  in  principle.  There  is  no  matter 
of  chance  in  this  business.  The  people  will,  I  trust  in  God, 
have  their  choice.  The  rank  and  file  I  have  always  found 
honest,  and  after  long  reflection,  as  in  the  case  of  the  choice 
of  a  President,  very,  very  safe.  If  they  should  ultimately 
settle  down  upon  General  Jackson,  the  country  would  be  safe, 
as  the  Government  would  be  very  wisely  administered  by  the 
best  men  it  contained.  Pennsylvania  is  divided  between  Cal- 
houn  and  Jackson,  and  the  man  that  gains  that  State,  for  rea- 
sons I  cannot  now  explain,  will  find  himself  standing  upon 
very  solid  ground,  and  if  New  York  does  not  hold  up  Mr. 
13 


194  LAFAYETTE    AND    THE    HEROES    OF    1812. 

Adams,  he  must  fall  and  leave  the  champion  of  Pennsylvania 
master  of  the  field. 

Remember,  I  write  in  confidence  on  these  subjects.  Re- 
member that  I  think  of  my  mother  with  deep  solicitude — 
take  care  of  her  so  far  as  it  may  depend  upon  you. 

Present  my  regards  to  your  wife  and  all  that  is  yours,  and 
Believe  me  ever  yours, 

Jac.  Brown. 
Col.  J.  Brown. 

Judge  Kirby  alluded  to  was  the  son  of  the  Middletown 
Kirby,  compiler  of  the  earliest  decisions  of  tli3  Connecticut 
Courts.  Kirby's  Reports  are  among  the  antiquities  of  Ameri- 
can law. 

The  letter,  as  will  be  noted,  was  written  at  the  militar}" 
head-quarters  at  Washington,  in  the  last  year  of  the  second 
term  of  President  Monroe,  "the  era  of  good  feeling,"  before 
the  revival  of  political  acrimony  engendered  in  after  years, 
and  when  society  at  the  national  capital  was  presided  over  by 
the  handsome  and  accomplished  Mrs.  Monroe,  and  the  pres- 
ence of  Mrs.  Hamilton  and  Mrs.  Madison  were  still  not  unfa- 
miliar in  the  gallery  of  the  Senate  chamber. 

We  confess  to  admiration  for  the-  military  hero,  Who  is  men- 
tally and  morally  so  nobly  constituted  that  the  calamities  of 
war  and  the  carnage  of  the  battle-Held  oblterate  no  filial  sen- 
timent nor  dampen  the  ardor  of  his  solicitude  for  a  mother ; 
who  cherishes  the  old  homestead,  and  hopes  for  the  continued 
flowering  and  fragrance  of  the  lihic  planted  there  by  his  own 
hand. 


THE    STAFF    OF    STEEL.  195 


THE  STAFF  OF  STEEL* 


HP  HE  banner  that  a  hundred  years 

*     Has  waved  above  our  good  ship's  keel, 
Uplield  by  oak  or  mast  of  pine, 

Now  proudly  floats  from  staff  of  steel. 

Another  hundred  years  shall  pass 

And  test  the  Nation's  power  and  weal ; 

But  still  that  emblem  shall  endure 
And  wave  above  that  staff  of  steel. 

The  boy  to-day  shall  grow  a  man, 

And  children's  children  pride  shall  feel. 

As  year  by  year  they  see  the  flag 
Above  that  stately  staff  of  steel. 

Soon  Lakeview,  Woodland,  Riverside, 

Will  keep  the  graves  where  kindred  kneel, — 

Of  all  who  now  salute  the  stars 

That  wave  above  that  staff  of  steel. 

And  in  remoter  ages  still, 

The  Antiquary's  worthy  zeal 
Will  note  the  tombs  and  mural  stones 

Of  those  who  gave  that  staff  of  steel. 

*  The  graceful  flag-staff  of  Bessemer  steel,  the  first  of  the  kind 
ever  erected,  was  the  gift  of  the  late  lamented  Henry  Chisholm,  on 
behalf  of  the  Cleveland  Rolling  Mill  Co.  It  was  placed  in  position  in 
Monumental  Park  under  the  auspices  of  David  Price  and  James 
Pannel,  and  from  which,  with  due  ceremonies,  Mayor  N.  P.  Payne 
unfurled  the  natioriel  emblem,  July  4th,  1876. 


196  REFLECTIONS. 


REFLECTIONS, 


A  MIDST  the  public  sorrow  for  the  death  of  Judge  Samuel 
**•  Starkweather,  July  5,  1876,  and  sympathy  for  his  family, 
there  is  withal  a  pleasant  reflection,  bordering  upon  satisfac- 
tion, that  his  life  had  been  so  bounteously  lengthened  out  that 
his  appreciating  eye  was  permitted  to  witness  the  auspicious 
dawn  and  happy  close  of  the  nation's  great  Centennial  day. 

When,  on  the  early  morning  of  the  Fourth,  with  the  rising 
sun  breaking  through  the  mists,  casting  the  rainbow  of  prom- 
ise on  the  Western  sky,  Mayor  Nathan  Perry  Payne  unfurled 
from  the  new  steel  flag-staff  the  emblem  of  a  hundred  years, 
how  little  was  it  thought  that  the  next  succeeding  day  he 
would  drop  that  flag,  for  the  first  time  in  the  opening  century,, 
to  a  half  mast,  in  honor  of  the  memory  of  an  official  prede- 
cessor. 

In  the  opening  of  this  new  century,  as  in  the  beginning  of 
a  new  year,  doubtless  there  are  but  few  who  have  not  made 
the  mental  inquiiy — Who  of  us  will  be  first  called  to  lie 
down  in  death  ?  The  ancient  record  is  familiar  to  all — "  Dust 
thou  art,  and  unto  dust  shalt  thou  return."  But  the  time 
and  the  order  of  our  going  it  is  best,  doubtless,  that  it  is 
unwritten  and  unannounced.  Of  the  late  departed,  whose 
life  had  been  long  and  honored  of  his  fellow  men,  although 
we  lament  him,  yet  we  are  inclined  to  cherish  the  thought 
that  his  death,  the  first  among  us  at  the  opening  of  the  second 
century  of  the  country,  which  he  had  loved  and  served  so 
well,  was  but  a  distinction  conferred — a  promotion  to  a  higher 
sphere  and  more  exalted  service. 


RIVERSIDE    DEDICATORY.  197 


RIVERSIDE  DEDICATORY. 


O TANDING  upon  this  field,  now  and  forever  to  be  conse- 
crated  to  the  dead,  and  to  be  adorned  and  made  attractive 
for  the  living,  we  are  inclined  to  search  the  records  of  the 
past  for  an  example. 

It  is  pleasing  to  find,  in  the  history  of  man,  an  early  and 
touching  instance  of  that  forethought  and  taste  which 
impelled  the  Father  of  the  Faithful  to  select  and  purchase 
the  field  of  Machpelah,  with  the  trees  and  the  cave,  as  the 
place  for  the  burial  of  his  dead  and  the  resting-place  of  his 
posterity.  "  Bury  me  not,  I  pray  thee,"  said  Jacob,  "  bury 
me  not  in  Eg}rpt,  but  I  will  lie  with  my  fathers.  And  thou 
shalt  carry  me  out  of  Eg}^pt  and  bury  me  in  their  burying- 
place.  There  they  buried  Abraham,  and  Sarah,  his  wife  ; 
there  they  buried  Isaac,  and  Rebecca,  his  wife,  and  there  I 
buried  Leah." 

These  are  but  natural  expressions  of  human  feeling ; 
instinct,  a  spiritual  impulse,  surpassing  belief  and  disdaining 
question.  It  is  a  sentiment  possessed  bty  every  nation,  tribe 
and  human  being.  Love  of  country  and  to  be  buried  with 
our  kindred  are  the  ruling  passions  and  the  last  expressed 
•desires  of  the  human  soul. 

A  few  years  since,  a  young  man,  with  his  wife  and  little 
two  year  old  boy,  left  the  green  hills  of  New  England  to  make 
their  home  upon  the  great  prairie  of  Illinois.  One  night  the 
Angel  of  Death  hovered  over  the  new  home,  and  spread  his 
sable  mantle  over  the  child.  Where  they  should  make  his 
grave  was  a  sad  question.  The  grave  of  one  little  child  upon 
the  boundless  prairie  would  be  loneliness  itself — a  flower 


198  RIVERSIDE    DEDICATORY. 

dropt  in  the  middle  of  the  ocean.  Besides  they  were  not 
permanently  settled,  and  could  not  brook  the  thought  of 
forsaking  the  grave  of  their  child.  The  spiritual  impulse 
came  to  their  relief.  Taking  up  the  little  coffin,  they  jour- 
neyed back  to  New  England  and  buried  their  first-born  beside 
the  graves  of  the  grandfather  and  grandmother,  in  the  old 
churchyard.  Then,  with  saddened  but  peaceful  hearts,  they 
returned,  gathered  up  the  little  garments  and  playthings,  to 
be  cherished  as  sorrowful  mementos,  and  made  their  new 
home  beyond  the  Mississippi. 

Who  shall  scoff  at  the  nations  that  inherit,  in  common  with 
ours,  one  of  the  noblest  impulses  of  the  human  heart  ?  Let 
the  bones  of  Joseph  be  carried  up  out  of  Egypt ;  let  the 
Chinaman  return  to  the  tomb  of  his  ancestors  in  the  valleys 
of  the  great  rivers  ;  let  the  dead  student  from  Japan  be 
tenderly  carried  back  to  rest  under  the  shadow  of  the  Peerless 
Mountain,  and  let  the  children  of  America  hold  in  sacred 
remembrance  and  veneration  the  fields  and  sepulchres  where 
their  forefathers  and  kindred  sleep. 

In  the  presence  of  those  here  assembled  it  would  be  super- 
fluous to  dwell  upon  the  features  of  attractive  loveliness  of 
this  field  for  the  place  of  sepulchre,  or  to  commend  the  enlight- 
ened judgment  and  admirable  taste  of  the  gentlemen  of  the 
association  who  selected  and  purchased  it,  and  under  whose 
charge  this  important  enterprise  now  is  ;  for,  in  my  judgment,, 
it  requires  no  stretch  of  the  imagination  to  conceive  that 
upon  that  third  day  of  the  creation,  when  the  waters  were 
gathered  together  unto  one  place  and  the  dry  land  appeared, 
and  Grod  saw  that  it  was  good,  the  appreciating  eye  of  Deity, 
looking  out  from  the  windows  of  heaven,  first  rested  upon  the 
landscape  of  Riverside. 

A  plateau  overlooking  a  winding  river,  in  a  valley  hollowed 
out  in  remote  ages  by  the  surges  of  an  inland  sea  ;  ravines 
which  were  once  estuaries,  but  now  woody  dells,  with  copious 
springs  for  lakelets  and  fountains,  and  a  rock  of  wonderful 


RIVERSIDE    DEDICATORY.  199 

proportions,  but  foreign  to  its  present  bed,  having  migrated 
hither  from  its  home  in  the  Arctic  mountains  when  Time  was 
young — in  the  day  when  "God  stood  and  measured  the  earth, 
and  the  everlasting  mountains  were  scattered,  the  perpetual 
hills  did  bow." 

There  are  sermons  in  stones  to  those  who  can  read  them. 
Oh,  if  that  granite  boulder,  standing  solitary  and  alone  in  the 
valley,  could  be  endowed  with  the  gift  and  power  of  utter- 
ance— could  rise  up  and  cry  out — the  mystery  of  creation 
would  be  solved.  The  elder  Herschel,  when  asked  by  his  son 
what,  in  his  opinion,  was  the  oldest  thing  in  the  world,  picked 
up  a  pebble,  saying,  "  There,  my  child,  is  the  oldest  of  all  the 
things  that  I  certainly  know."  When  visitors  shall  get 
bewildered  in  the  windings  and  turnings  in  the  ravines  of 
Riverside,  and  shall  come  upon  the  great  boulder  to  which 
allusion  is  here  made,  they  may  know  thereby  that  they  are 
hard  by  the  chapel  on  the  plateau — in  the  Dell  of  the  Rock. . 

This  delightful  abode  of  the  dead  will  in  all  coming  time 
be  anticipated  by  the  living  with  cheerful  resignation,  and  all 
who  hope  to  rest  here  will  be  inspired  to  so  live  toward  man 
and  God  that,  when  the  summons  comes,  each  will  lie  down  in 
death  "  as  one  who  wraps  the  drapery  of  his  couch  about  him 
and  lies  down  to  pleasant  dreams." 

Probably  all  great  cities  have  some  special  points  of 
attraction,  either  of  parks,  avenues  or  cemeteries.  Cleveland 
is  favored  in  all,  but  in  none  wJll  there  be  in  all  time  so  much 
of  individual  and  municipal  pride  as  in  Lakeview  and  River- 
side. It  is  no  disparagement  to  their  colleagues  and  coad- 
jutors to  say  that  J.  H.  Wade  and  J.  M.  Curtiss  are  especially 
recognized  as  the  projectors  of  the  respective  enterprises,  and 
for  their  forethought  and  cultured  taste,  generations  to  come 
will  honor  their  memory. 

It  is  among  the  sadly  pleasant  memories  of  my  life  that  I 
saw  the  Old  Man  Eloquent  laid  in  his  granite  vault  at  Quincy; 
that  I  have  stood  at  the  tomb  of  Webster  by  the  side  of  the: 


200  RIVERSIDE    DEDICATORY. 

great  ocean  which  he  loved  so  well ;  have  lingered  among  the 
primeval  trees  at  Mount  Auburn  which  shade  the  mortal 
remains  of  the  matchless  Choate  ;  have  lamented  Douglas 
while  standing  by  his  ashes  at  Cottage  Grove ;  and  have 
dropped  a  S3Tmpathetic  tear  upon  the  grave  of  Lincoln  in  the 
heart  of  the  great  prairie  ;  but  among  all  the  cherished 
places  of  the  dead  I  know  of  none  where  the  aspects  of  nature 
combine  in  greater  variety  or  present  more  exquisite  beauties 
than  your  own  chosen  Riverside. 

In  expressing  our  admiration  of  that  modern  taste  mani- 
fested in  adorning  the  homes  of  the  dead,  we  should  not 
forget  our  kindred  who  sleep  in  the  cheerless  village 
church}Tard,  or  on  the  barren  and  neglected  knoll  by  the 
country  waj'side.  They  are  intimately  associated  with  the 
earliest  sorrows  of  childhood  and  the  bereavements  of  maturer 
years.  They  are  sacred  as  places  consecrated  to  our  early 
dead — shrines  to  which  we  make  pilgrimages  in  after  years, 
when  all  in  the  old  neighborhood  have  forgotten  us. 

The  scholar  may  revisit  his  Alma  plater  in  the  venerable 
halls  of  Yale  or  in  the  classic  shades  of  Harvard  ;  he  may 
strive  to  awaken  youthful  associations  with  Livy  and  Virgil  ; 
he  may  read  anew  ^Escliylus  and  Xenophon,  and  reflect  upon 
the  pages  of  Thucydides  ;  but  the  sacred  stone  of  the  Caaba. 
the  Mecca  of  the  heart,  lies  further  back,  in  the  dear  associa- 
tions connected  with  the  lonely  and  >neglected  graveyard, 
where  the  forefathers  of  the  hamlet  sleep. 


MEMORIAL    TREE    PLANTING.  201 


MEMORIAL  TREE  PLANTING. 


A  large  number  of  citizens  who  had  been  assigned  places  in  the 
several  groups  and  on  the  avenue  in  Riverside,  for  the  planting  of 
trees,  but  who  could  not  for  various  reasons  be  present  on  the  occa- 
sion of  Gov.  Hayes'  visit,  assembled,  Nov.  27,  1876,  of  their  own 
motion  and  without  previous  announcement,  and  performed  that 
pleasant  service.  Among  them  were  Messrs.  Harvey  Rice,  J.  H. 
Wade,  Joseph  Turney,  S.  T.  Everett,  John  Tod,  William  Edwards, 
J.  C.  Weideman,  Rev.  J.  C.  White,  and  G.  H.  Foster. 

The  first  tree  planted  was  Mr.  J,  H.  Wade's,  on  the  right  of  the 
eastern  terminus  of  the  avenue,  and  that  of  J.  M.  Curtiss  directly 
opposite,  being  planted  by  the  respective  gentlemen.  On  the  com- 
pletion of  this  ceremony  the  President,  Mr.  Barber,  called  upon  F.  T. 
Wallace,  Esq.,  to  explain  the  purpose  and  design  of  the  Association 
in  the  position  of  these  two  trees. — [Cleveland  Leader.] 

TV/I  R,  Wallace  said,  "  I  will  state  so  briefly  as  not  to  embar- 
rass or  hinder  in  the  work  before  us,  that  in  the  planting 
of  these  two  trees  at  the  eastern  terminus  of  this  broad  and 
beautiful  avenue  the  tasteful  gentlemen  of  the  Association 
seek  to  represent,  in  a  degree,  what  the  sculptor  might  more 
manifestly  express  to  the  common  eye  in  marble.  If  emblem- 
ized  by  statues  instead  of  trees,  the  legend  on  the  pedestal 
on  the  left  might  read  : 

"  Riverside,  introducing  the  Nestor  of  Lakeview  to  the 
denizens  of  the  avenue." 

It  is  sought  in  this  ceremony  to  typify  and  perpetuate 
the  mutual  interests  and  kindly  relations  existing  between 
two  kindred  institutions. 

The  tree  on  the  right  represents  the  older  institution — the 
grandeur  and  glory  of  Lakeview — and  will  be  recognized  and 
known  in  all  coming  time  as  the  "  Wade  Tree." 


202  MEMORIAL    TREE    PLANTING.^ 

The  tree  upon  the  left  represents  one  who  bears  the  same 
relation  to  the  younger  institution,  with  its  bright  prospects 
and  hopes,  and  will  be  known  as  the  "  Curtiss  Tree." 

In  planting  the  tree  on  the  right,  the  Riverside  Association 
deem  it  fitting  to  express  their  especial  pleasure  that  a  tree 
should  be  planted  in  these  grounds  and  upon  this  avenue  b}' 
a  citizen  who  is  recognized,  above  all  others,  as  the  father  of 
Lakeview,  and  the  beautifier  and  adorner  of  the  parks  and 
public  grounds  of  our  city.  The  man  whose  public  recog- 
nition is  that  of  one  of  the  great  telegraphic  quadrilateral  of 
this  continent  and  the  world,  embraced  in  the  names  of  Morse, 
Cornell,  Wade  and  Field. 

To  Jephthah  H.  Wade  more  than  to  any  man,  living  or  dead, 
is  due  the  great  network  of  telegraph  wires  spreading '  over 
this  continent  and  reaching  to  the  Golden  Gate.  He  surveyed 
the  inhospitable  coast  of  Alaska  to  Behring  Strait.  He 
induced  the  Czar  of  Russia  to  co-operate  with  him  in  survey- 
ing the  dreary  coasts  of  Kamtschatka  and  the  Valley  of  the 
Amoor  River  in  Eastern  Asia,  for  telegraphic  communication 
with  America  and  St.  Petersburg,  to  be  utilized  in  the  event 
of  the  impracticability  of  the  then  contemplated  Atlantic 
cable  to  which  the  energies  of  Field  were  directed,  and  only 
retired  when  that  great  wonder  was  achieved. 

When  that  good,  gray  head,  which  has  withstood  the  storms 
of  many  winters,  shall  bow  in  death,  and  shall  be  laid  to  rest 
in  his  own  beautiful  Lakeview,  the  telegraph  in  San  Francisco, 
St.  Petersburg  and  Calcutta,  will  send  its  click  in  sympathetic 
response  to  the  sorrows  of  the  Riverside  Association,  and  for 
the  inestimable  loss  sustained  by  neighbors  and  friends,  and 
to  the  municipality  which  he  honored  and  of  which  he  was- 
the  pride. 


THE    DEAD    CHILDREN.  203 


THE  DEAD  CHILDREN. 


T  T  is  but  a  few  years  since  that  the  members  of  every  house- 
hold in  the  land  scanned  with  expectant  anxiety  the  tele- 
graphic columns  of  the  press  for  the  minute  details  of  battles 
along  the  Mississippi,  beyond  the  Potomac,  in  the  Wilderness, 
and  upon  the  high  places  of  the  Sunny  South.  The  total  of 
the  slain  in  the  hundred  battles  made  wives  widows,  and  chil- 
dren fatherless,  in  every  town,  parish  and  city  in  the  United 
States.  Yet  so  great  were  the  country's  demands,  and  so 
high  the  resolve  of  those  who  fell,  and  no  less  those  who 
mourned  a  husband  or  a  father,  that  domestic  grief  was,  in  a, 
degree,  assuaged,  and  consolation  found  in  patriotic  devotion 
and  the  public  honors  paid  the  dead. 

As  distance  enhances  the  beauties  of  the  landscape,  so  the 
remoteness  of  a  foreign  war  deadens  the  public  sensibilities  to 
its  horrors  and  calamities.  Of  the  dead  and  wounded  in  the 
icy  gorges  of  the  Balkan  Mountains  and  at  Plevna,  we  hardly 
give  a  thought.  We  only  look  to  ascertain  who  has  won  in 
the  bloody  contest.  Scarcely  a  thought,  much  less  is  a  tear 
bestowed  upon  the  wife  and  child  of  the  dead  Osmanlian,  nor 
do  we  realize  the  sorrows  of  the  Russian  household  high  up 
in  the  long  shadows  of  the  Arctic  circle,  or  the  sad  lamenta- 
tions of  the  Cossack  widow  and  her  children  on  the  bleak 
plains  of  Astrachan  and  the  Ukraine. 

But  it  is  the  calamities  of  common  life  which  touch  the 
heart  with  deepest  grief,  and  no  event  of  late  has  aroused  so 
much  of  sympathy  and  sorrow  as  the  fatal  event  which  befell 
the  toiling  women  and  children  in  the  Barclay  street  toy  fac- 
tory, New  York.  The  Christmas  season  of  1877  will  be  sad- 


"204  THE    DEAD    CHILDREN. 

dened  by  the  reflections  of  every  child  in  the  country  that 
nearly  two  hundred  persons,  mostly  little  girls  and  boys,  who 
were  toiling  in  the  great  factory,  night  and  day,  to  earn  their 
own  subsistence,  and  probably  also  that  of  an  impoverished 
father  and  mother,  should  be  crushed  and  burned  to  death, 
and  that,  too,  while  working  to  make  other  children  happy  in 
the  coming  holidays. 

Industry  is  a  necessity  for  all,  and  good  even  for  children 
in  a  suitable  place  and  in  a  moderate  degree  ;  but  the  packing 
of  them  in  great  five-story  buildings,  with  steam  engines  in 
the  basement,  is  to  subject  them  to  too  great  hazard  of  life 
and  limb. 

When  in  the  early  morning  we  meet  a  man  with  a  tin  pail 
on  his  way  to  his  daily  task,  we  feel  a  thankfulness  that  he 
has  something  to  do.  When  the  next  is  a  young  girl,  tidily 
but  thinly  clad,  drawing  her  frail  mantle  closer  around  her  to 
keep  out  the  cold  wind,  making  her  way  to  the  store,  shop  or 
factory,  it  is  hard  to  tell  which  sentiment  prevails ;  whether 
gladness  that  she  has  the  opportunity  to  work,  or  sadness  that 
her  own  and  her  family  necessities  drive  her  out  into  the  too 
early  and  frosty  morning  air. 

But  it  is  when  we  see  the  little  boy  or  girl,  the  mere  child, 
€ompelled  to  tread  and  toil  in  the  great  mills  and  factories, 
rung  in  at  six  in  the  morning  and  rung  out  at  six  at  night, 
subjected  to  cheerless  and  hopeless  toil,  with  overseers  to  the 
right  of  them,  overseers  to  the  left  of  them,  steam  engines 
under  them  rattling  and  thundering,  our  spirit  revolts,  and 
we  deplore  the  fact  that  the  inhumanit}'  of  some  men  makes 
countless  children  mourn. 


LIVINGSTONE STANLEY. 


205 


LIVINGSTONE — STANLEY. 


"\  7[  THEN  Livingstone  had  been  lost  to  the  world  for  six 
*  ^  years  in  Equatorial  Africa,  reported  and  believed  even 
by  Sir  Roderick  Murchinson  and  the  London  Geographical  So- 
ciety to  be  dead,  it  was  reserved  to  the  enterprise  of  an 
American  journal  to  seek  the  lost  traveler,  and,  if  alive,  to 
supply  his  possible  needs.  This  was  accomplished  through 
the  brave  and  intrepid  Stanley.  No  higher  testimonial  of  the 
magnificence  of  his  achievement  could  have  been  bestowed 
upon  him,  as  a  commissioner  of  the  press,  than  was  un- 
wittingly conferred  by  a  disbelief  for  a  time,  even  in  the  most 
intelligent  circles,  both  in  his  narrative  and  its  possibilities. 
Time,  however,  justified  all  his  statements.  Livingstone  de- 
termined to  remain  two  years  longer  to  finish  the  exploration 
and  find,  if  possible,  the  fountains  of  the  Nile,  well  known  to 
the  Egyptian  and  the  Greek  when  Herodotus  wrote,  but 
afterwards  lost  to  the  student  of  geography  for  two  thousand 
years. 

Stanley  was  the  last  American  or  English  friend  seen  by 
Livingstone,  and  he  died  just  upon  the  eve  of  his  triumph, 
doubtless  with  blessings  on  his  lips  for  Stanley,  and  hoping 
for  his  ultimate  return  to  take  up  and  carry  on  the  struggle 
in  the  jungles,  and  finally  to  win  the  conquest  of  the  ages. 

No  sooner  was  the  death  of  the  great  explorer  ascertained 
than  Stanley,  under  the  patronage  of  the  New  York  Herald 
and  the  London  Telegraph,  was  "  on  "  to  the  Fountains.  Now 
he  has  just  been  greeted  in  Rome  for  the  light  he  has  shed 
upon  a  subject  which  once  occupied  the  thoughts  of  her  em- 
perors ;  for  that  which  Nero  once  sent  his  centurions  in  search,. 


206  LIVINGSTONE STANLEY. 

but  which  they  sought  in  vain ;  for  the  newly  discovered 
fountains  of  the  Nile  which  Julius  Caesar  said  he  would  will- 
ingly lay  down  the  sword  if  he  could  only  have  the  glory  of 
their  discovery.  But  it  has  been  reserved  to  Stanley  to  reap 
the  honors  once  coveted  by  the  Imperial  Caesars,  while  Paris 
and  London  are  awaiting  to  confer  upon  the  Joshua  of  mod- 
ern discovery  the  rewards  which,  but  for  his  death,  would 
have  been  bestowed  upon  Livingstone,  the  Moses  of  the 
Upper  Nile. 


A    MARMION    OF    THE    NILE.  207 


A  MARMION  OF  THE  NILE. 


OIR  Roderick's*  dead  —  and  yet  awhile 
^   One  seeks  the  sources  of  the  Nile, 
Beyond  where  Speke  and  Baker  led, 
Whom  Science  mourned  as  lover  dead, 
To  drink  the  triumph  of  the  press 
At  the  fountains  of  Herodotus. 

.By  lone  N}~anza's  waters  deep 
The  bold  explorer  yet  may  sleep  ; 
And  when  a  thousand  years  expire, 
And  Afric's  muse  shall  wake  the  lyre, 
And  sing-  a  nation  great  and  free, 
From  Orient  wave  to  Western  sea ; 
And  legends  weird  shall  then  recite 
Of  the  primeval  Troglodite  ; 
And  gentle  eyes  with  tears  shall  start 
For  the  slave  boy  with  the  broken  heart ;  f 
When  the  elm  that  guards  St.  Fillan's  spring 
No  more  at  Beltane  buds  shall  bring, 
And  border  wars  remembered  not, 
And  Marmion  shall  be  forgot, 
Then  will  the  cry,  "On,  Stanley,  on!" 
Be  "  the  last  words  "  of  Livingstone. 


*Murchison. 

tDr.  Livingstone's  letter  to  Mr.  Bennett:  "They  (slave  captives) 
evidently  die  of  broken-heartedness.  I  saw  others  perish,  particularly 
a  very  fine  boy  ten  or  twelve  years  of  age.  When  asked  where  he  felt 
ill,  he  put  his  hand  correctly  and  exactly  over  his  heart.  He  was 
kindly  earned,  and,  as  he  breathed  out  his  soul,  was  laid  gently  by 
the  side  of  the  path. 


208  VIADUCT    REFLECTIONS. 


VIADUCT  REFLECTIONS. 


PHE  interest  with  which  I  have  watched  the  progress  of 
the  grand  structure,  whose  completion  is  now  celebrated, 
has  vivified  my  consciousness  of  the  reality  that  it  has  been 
given  unto  us  to  live  in  a  culminating  age. 

We  have  seen  the  bubbling  teakettle  of  Watt  assume  the 
form  and  habiliments  of  the  locomotive  and  speed  from 
London  to  Edinburg.  We  have  seen  it  traverse  the  American 
continent  from  the  Bay  of  Fundy  to  the  Golden  Gate.  We 
have  seen  the  fieiy  giant  whiz  over  Europe  and  plunge 
through  the  heart  of  Mont  Cenis.  We  have  watched  its 
progress  for  five  hundred  miles  along  the  western  bank  of  the 
Nile,  destined  to  find  its  ultimate  station  at  the  fountains  of 
Herodotus. 

We  have  become  so  familiarized  to  modern  discoveries 
since  Layard  uncovered  Nineveh,  forty  years  ago,  and  carried 
the  winged  bulls  which  guarded  the  portals  of  the  temples 
and  palaces  of  Ninus  to  the  British  Museum,  that  we  fail  to 
be  astonished  when  Cesnola  opens  up  buried  Kittim  and 
brings  to  our  shores  from  ancient  Cyprus  the  treasures  of 
Phoenician  art. 

So  surfeited  have  become  our  antiquarian  and  aesthetic 
tastes,  that  we  are  almost  as  indifferent  to  the  fact  that  the 
palace  of  Priam  has  been  found  upon  the  site  of  ancient  Troy, 
or  that  a  hundred  men  are  to-day  delving  with  pick  and 
spade  among  the  prostrate  and  buried  columns  and  Corinthian 
capitals  of  the  temple  of  Diana  of  the  Ephesians,  as  we  are 
to  the  announcement  of  a  new  silver  mine  in  Nevada,  or  the 
opening  up  of  a  hundred  barrel  well  in  the  oil  regions. 


VIADUCT    REFLECTIONS.  209 

We  are  dazed  and  bewildered  when  the  tablets  of  the 
Assyrian  library  are  recovered,  and  the  cuniform  inscriptions 
are  translated  by  Rawlinson  and  George  Smith,  to  find  that 
the  Hebrew  record  of  the  deluge  is  but  the  transcription  of  a 
record  of  a  legend  still  more  Oriental,  antedating  both  Moses 
and  Abraham  by  thousands  of  j^ears. 

Babylonian  bricks,  stamped  with  the  trade  mark  of  Nebu- 
chadnezzar, brought  home  (not  in  their  hats)  by  learned  and 
accomplished  Oriental  travelers,,  awaken  but  momentary 
reflections.  Tiles,  mosaics  from  the  ruins  of  Shushan,  the 
palace,  over  which  Ahasuerus  strode,  awaken  no  slumbering 
emotions,  though  once  graced  by  the  touch  of  the  sandals  of 
Esther.  Incredulous  we  are  possibly  to  the  startling  enuncia- 
tion that  Schliemann  has  recovered  the  sword  and  shield  of 
Agamemnon,  and  proved  the  once  mythical  hero  of  the 
Homeric  tale  as  truly  an  historical  character  as  Csesarr 
Napoleon,  Wellington  or  Grant. 

Within  our  memory  the  lightning  which  Franklin  seduced 
from  the  clouds  has  been  harnessed  by  Morse  for  the  service 
of  man,  and  for  more  than  thirty  years  has  been  driven  by 
Cornell,  our  own  Wade,  and  Cyrus  W.  Field  over  continents 
and  under  oceans,  and  is  yet  the  fleetest  nag  ever  put  upon 
the  course. 

The  possibilities  of  engineering  and  triumphs  of  the 
engineer  have  been  great  in  all  ages,  and  the  lofty  and 
expanding  arches  of  the  Cleveland  Viaduct  attest  the  science 
and  skill  of  our  own  engineers  in  a  work  which  has  no  supe- 
rior of  its  kind. 

It  is  fitting  that  the  completion  of  this  great  work  should 
be  celebrated,  and  the  names  of  such  as  have  been  prominently 
identified  with  the  enterprise  be  perpetuated  in  our  public 
journals,  to  be  read  not  only  now,  but  so  long  as  the  English 
language  shall  endure. 

How  interesting  it  would  be  on  this  occasion  if  we  had  a 
copy  of  the  Memphian  Morning  Herald,  containing  an  account 
14 


210  VIADUCT    REFLECTIONS. 

of  that  sublime  celebration  on  the  completion  of  the  great 
pyramid — when  Cheops  was  "  turned  over  "  to  the  Pharaoh 
by  the  contractor ;  to  learn  the  names  of  the  architect  and 
engineer ;  to  read  the  address  of  the  Mayor  of  Memphis,  and 
get  a  few  statistics  of  its  cost,  and  a  definite  statement  of  its 
purposes  by  the  editor-in-chief. 

How  delightful  would  be  a  copy  of  the  Theban  Morning 
Leader,  containing  the  ceremonies  at  the  unveiling  of  the 
statue  of  Memnon  ;  the  completion  of  the  avenue  of  colossal 
Sphinxes  leading  to  the  great  temple  at  Karnak,  together 
with  a  report  of  the  inauguration,  at  Aboo  Simbel,  of  the  six 
Sitting  Colossi,  sixty  feet  in  stature,  sculptured  in  the  moun- 
tain of  rock  facing  the  Nile,  including  an  interview,  on  the 
spot,  of  Rameses  the  Great,  by  its  commissioner,  touching 
his  desires  or  expectations  for  a  third  term. 

How  instructive  to  the  students  of  history,  had  there  been 
preserved  in  the  vaults  of  the  Tabularium  the  earlier  consec- 
utive volumes  of  the  Roman  Plain  Dealer,  established, 
doubtless,  in  the  reign  of  Tarquin  the  Proud  ;  what  light  it 
would  shed  upon  the  venerable  temple  of  Jupiter  and  the 
Forum  ;  what  knowledge  we  should  get  of  the  debates  in 
council  between  the  South  and  Northsiders  concerning  the 
bridges  of  the  Tiber  and  the  toll  ordinances  ;  how  fascinating 
to  read  therein  the  triumphal  return  of  the  consuls  and 
emperors  with  their  legions,  loaded  down  with  the  spoons  and 
spoils  of  subjugated  provinces  ;  or  of  the  military  display  on 
the  completion  of  the  Coliseum  ;  the  banquet  in  the  evening 
and  the  speech  of  the  editor  ;  the  completion  of  the  Appian 
Way,  or  the  arched  aqueducts  across  the  Campagna,  and  from 
the  springs  in  the  hills  of  Janiculum  for  the  supply  of  the 
Eternal  City.  All  this,  and  much  more,  would  be  found  in 
the  columns  of  that  enterprising  journal  had  it  survived  the 
fall  of  the  empire. 

So  will  it  be  in  ages  to  conie  an  agreeable  retrospect,  when 


VIADUCT    REFLECTIONS.  211 

the  pages  of  our  now  living  journals  shall  be  consulted  for  a 
history  of  the  happy  event  which  we  now  and  here  celebrate. 

And  now,  what  of  the  future  of  the  lofty  arches  and  pon- 
derous masonry  of  the  Cleveland  Viaduct  ?  How  long  will  it 
endure  ?  These  are  questions,  not  of  immediate  importance 
to  us,  but  only  incitives  to  reflection  concerning  the  eternity 
of  the  future  as  of  the  past. 

It  will  remain  intact  and  perfect  for  the  service  of  many 
generations,  undisturbed  by  the  elements,  if  only  earthquakes 
shall  deal  gently  with  it,  and  until  the  next  glacial  period  set 
down  in  the  calendar  of  the  mathematician  and  astronomer 
at  about  a  million  of  years  hence.  If  more  exactness  of  time 
is  demanded,  I  refer  all  inquiring  minds  to  Cleveland's  emi- 
nent mathematician,  to  whom  the  Mecanique  Celeste  of 
Laplace  is  attractive  reading,  and  whose  name  is  familiar  to 
the  astronomers  of  Europe  and  the  savants  of  the  French 
Academy.  The  wide  and  remote  fields  of  mathematical 
calculations  of  Mr.  John  N.  Stockwell  are  best  known  to  the 
few  whose  researches  are  influenced  or  'affected  by  a  compari- 
son with  his  deductions. 

His  elaborate  memoir  in  the  eighteenth  volume  of  the 
Smithsonian  Contribution  to  Knowledge,  dealing  with  the 
secular  variations  of  the  elements  of  the  orbits  of  planets,  has 
made  him  an  authority  among  astronomers  and  mathemati- 
cians. Therein  he  has  confirmed  the  calculations  of  La  Grange 
and  Leverrier,  rectifying,  however,  so  far  as  the  influence  of 
Neptune  affects  results,  in  the  calculations  of  the  former,  which 
were  made  before  that  planet  was  discovered  and  consequently 
not  considered. 

The  influence  which  Jupiter  and  other  celestial  gallants 
have  exercised  over  our  mother  Earth,  subjecting  her  to 
suspicion  of  "  eccentricity  "  in  her  character  and  habits,  even 
from  her  first  appearance  in  the  society  of  the  universe,  has 
in  recent  years  been  discovered  and  in  her  eccentricities  noted 
with  some  surprise,  if  not  alarm.  It  is  averred  that  more 


212  VIADUCT    REFLECTIONS. 

than  once,  even  within  a  few  millions  of  years,  influenced 
thereto  by  heavenly  affinities,  she  has  tripped  beyond  the 
line  of  propriety  in  the  giddy  waltz  along  the  plane  of 
the  celestial  ecliptic,  till,  in  her  frenzy,  perhaps  in  her  frantic 
despair,  she  had  donned  the  Borean  ice-cap  and  snowy 
mantle,  freezing  and  crushing  all  that  had  life — and  is  likely 
to  do  so  again  in  a  million  of  years.  In  recent  years  it  has 
been  discovered  that  distant  Neptune  is  another  of  her  old 
affinities,  and  their  conduct  is  being  watched  that,  happily, 
we  may  migrate  before  the  advent  of  the  returning  cj'cle  of 
ice. 

Not  intending  to  excite  alarm  as  to  the  future  of  our  city, 
or  to  affect  the  present  value  of  the  commercial  marine,  of 
which  this  is  the  home  port,  or  to  create  a  panic  in  real 
estate,  yet  I  feel  impelled  to  suggest  a  remote  probability. 
When,  a  few  years  since,  Tyndall  visited  Niagara,  he  con- 
firmed the  prior  estimates  of  geologists  as  to  the  time 
occupied  by  the  waters  in  excavating  the  seven-miles'  chasm 
below  and  reaching  the  present  falls  as  about  thirty  thousand 
years.  The  same  process  of  erosion  for  another  like  period 
will  open  the  way  through  its  rocky  boundary,  and  Lake 
Erie  will  be  drained,  and  a  vast  prairie  take  its  place,  traversed 
in  its  center  by  a  river  which  will  receive  the  Cuyahoga  forty 
miles  from  its  present  mouth.  Then  the  Viaduct  arches,  the 
breakwater,  the  Government  pier  and  the  crib  will  be  visited 
by  the  antiquarian  on  the  borders  of  a  vast  plain. 

But  let  us  not  borrow  trouble.  Our  splendid  Viaduct  will 
serve  through  abundant  }'ears  and  prove  a  bond  of  union  and 
a  blessing  to  the  municipal^  and  to  the  descendants  for 
ages  of  a  generous  and  magnanimous  people. 


THE    DEAD    ASTRONOMER.  213 


THE  DEAD  ASTRONOMER. 


A  S  I  have  gazed  for  the  last  few  pleasant  evenings  (1878) 
*^^  upon  the  glorious  heavens,  and  stood  in  contemplative 
.amazement  in  the  presence  of  Jupiter  as  he  arose  above  the 
Eastern  horizon,  I  have  felt  that  the  mighty  and  brilliant  star 
•was  itself  looking  out  from  the  wondrous  depths  of  space  and 
searching  for  some  human  being  with  mind  capacious  and  in- 
telligent, with  which  to  hold  mysterious  but  delightful  com- 
munion. 

The  announcement  in  the  morning  journals  of  the  death  of 
Professor  William  M.  Davis  impresses  me  with  a  semblance 
of  truth  in  my  reveries  and  imaginations.  Among  those  who 
have  contributed  to  make  Cleveland  attractive  as  a  place  of 
permanent  residence  to  others  devoted  to  scientific  researches 
.and  literary  and  educational  pursuits,  the  name  of  Professor 
Davis  will  be  borne  in  pleasant  memory:  In  such  quiet  con- 
templation has  he  lived  among  us,  that  doubtless  many  fail 
to  remember  that  Professor  Davis  succeeded  General  Mitchell 
in  the  charge  of  the  Cincinnati  Observatory,  when  he  went  to 
the  war,  and  there  nightly,  for  seven  years,  surveyed  the 
heavens  and  sounded  the  star  depths,  devising  in  the  time  a 
hew  system  of  curvatures  for  acromatic  lenses  for  telescopes, 
himself  making  a  large  object  glass  on  that  principle,  the  su- 
periority of  which  was  attested. 

A  social  and  genial  gentleman,  this  venerable  astronomer, 
while  resident  among  us,  often  contributed  to  the  delight,  not 
only  of  those  of  kindred  tastes  and  pursuits,  but  to  the  unini- 
tiated he  was  wont  to  open  to  their  broader  vision,  through 
Ms  great  telescope,  the  beauties  of  Pleiades  and  Orion,  and 


214  THE    DEAD    ASTRONOMER. 

bring  forth  to  their  wondrous  gaze  Mazzaroth  in  his  season, 
and  guide,  for  a  moment,  Arcturus  and  his  sons. 

It  is  to  our  city's  honor  that  when  but  recently  the  moons 
of  Mars  were  first  announced,  Mr.  Davis  discovered,  even  from 
the  imperfect  data  then  given,  that  one  of  them  would  rise  in 
the  West  and  set  in  the  East,  and  published  an  article  describ- 
ing what  phenomena  might  be  seen  by  an  observer  on  Mars. 
About  a  month  thereafter  Richard  A.  Proctor  published  his 
paper,  stating  the  same  fact. 

Although  three  score  }Tears  and  ten,  his  astronomical  eye 
was  not  dimmed  nor  his  scientific  force  abated,  and  until  his 
lamented  death  he  was  delving  among  the  stars  and  contem- 
plating the  Alpha  of  worlds.  No  longer  ago  than  last  month 
(July,  1878,)  there  appeared  in  the  Popular  Science  Monthly 
a  profound  paper  from  his  pen  discoursing  of  the  Formation 
of  Nebulae. 


SOUTH    SIDE    PARK DEDICATORY.  215 


SOUTH  SIDE  PARK— DEDICATORY. 


TV  j\  Y  Friends  : — It  is  pleasing  to  me  to  be  enabled  to  par- 
ticipate  with  you  in  celebrating,  here  and  now,  this  one 
hundred  and  third  anniversary  of  our^National  Independence, 
and  the  first  year  of  the  emancipation  of  "  Pelton  Park,  a  pri- 
vate park,"  from  the  thraldom  of  judicial  tribunals  and  legal 
controversy,  and  its  permanent  establishment  as  a  public  park, 
forever  to  delight  the  eye  and  grace  the  South  Side  of  this 
municipality. 

,  To  accomplish  the  happy  triumphs  of  this  hour  you  have 
passed  through  the  battles  of  legal  warfare  for  a  period 
longer  than  that  of  the  bloody  civil  war,  or  the  seven  years 
struggle  of  the  Revolution.  But  happily  while  you  have 
friends  whom  you  would  reward  with  your  gratitude,  you 
have  no  enemies  to  exult  over,  much  less  to  punish.  The 
controversies  in  which  you  have  participated,,  both  in  the 
courts  and  in  the  council,  burdened  with  Vmxious  solicitude  to 
secure  this  inestimable  prize  to  yourselves  and  your  posterit}^, 
were  after  all  but  as  ephemeral  as  the  storm  cloud  that  for  a 
moment  obscures  the  sun,  making  its  effulgence  to  seem  the 
more  glorious  to  the  sons  and  daughters  of  men  after  the 
storm  has  passed. 

Such  controversies  and  anxieties  are,  however,  but  the  com- 
mon incidents  of  this  busy  life.  But  they  are  as  nothing 
compared  to  the  crushing  affliction  of  the  father  and  mother 
whose  beautiful  boy  is  brought  home  mortally  wounded  by  an 
innocent  playmate ;  nothing  as  compared  with  that  blinding 
shadow  that  rests  upon  the  soul  of  that  still  young  and  beau- 
tiful empress  mother  in  exile,  at  the  mournful  intelligence  that 


216  SOUTH    SIDE    PARK DEDICATORY. 

the  youthful  prince  of  an  Imperial  line,  the  only  and  beloved 
son  of  his  mother,  and  she  a  widow,  has  fallen  in  death  in  the 
jungles  of  Africa.  Absolutely  as  nothing  to  him,  or  her 
whose  earty  friends  are  dead  or  distant,  and  who  is  destined 
to  live  a  weary  and  aimless  life,  burdened,  possibly,  with  an 
unspeakable  sorrow,  and  go  down  to  the  grave  with  a  broken 
heart.  Let  the  dead  past  bury  its  dead.  After  the  felicita- 
tions of  this  day  let  every  man  present  return  to  his  home  re- 
solved more  than  ever  to  love  his  wife  and  his  children  and 
his  neighbor  as  himself,  and  happiness  will  henceforth  abide 
around  this  lovely  park,  and  peace  will  dwell  in  every  habita- 
tion upon  this  delightful  plateau. 

"Peace  hath  her  triumphs  no  less  renowned  than  war." 
Nearly  twenty  years  ago  I  looked  into  this  park  and  sur- 
rounding lands,  where  then  was  to  be  seen  but  here  and  there 
an  ancient  farm  house  of  some  early  settler,  now  covered  with 
the  homes  of  a  teeming  and  industrious  population.  The 
lower  plateau  to  the  south  wras  then  for  a  time  a  Champ  de 
Mars, — the  rendezvous  of  the  legions  of  the  North, — the  place 
of  preparation  and  discipline  for  renowned  conflicts  upon 
Southern  fields.  There  bivouacked  for  a  season  the  heroes  of 
Shiloh  and  the  Wilderness,  and  those  who  marched  with  Sher- 
man to  the  sea.  There  the  tattoo  beat  at  night,  and  the 
reveille  awoke  the  incipient  soldier  from  his  sweet  dream  of 
wife  and  children  to  the  coming  realities  of  dreadful  war. 
But  now  triumphant  peace  has  covered  that  famous  camp  of 
the  civil  war  with  the  homes  of  men,  arid  children  play  and 
the  roses  of  summer  bloom  where  once  bright  bayonets  glis- 
tened in  the  sun,  and  battalions  wheeled  in  airy  echelon  over 
the  plain.  . 

This  to  me  is  enchanted  ground.  The  vast  plain  on  which 
we  stand,  including  the  bluffs  which  have  their  outlook  over 
yonder  valley  traversed  by  the  winding  river,  was  once,  I  con- 
ceive, the  cultivated  field  and  garden  of  the  Mound  Builders. 
When  were  they  here  ?  Many  times  have  the  trees  grown 


SOUTH    SIDE    PARK DEDICATORY.  217 

and  decayed  since  they  were  here,  and  the  stately  forests 
which  now  cover  the  site  of  their  earthworks  we  call  prime- 
val. And  who  were  they  ?  They  were  the  subjects  of  an  Em- 
pire which  in  the  zenith  of  its  splendor  embraced  the  entire 
Western  Hemisphere,  whose  capital  was  in  Peru,  and  what  is 
now  Ohio,  dotted  with  the  remains  of  their  mysterious  struc- 
tures, was  but  one  of  its  remote  northern  provinces,  ruled 
over,  doubtless,  by  a  satrap  or  governor  sent  from  th  e  Impe- 
rial Capital.  A  perusal  of  Colonel  Charles  Whittlesey's 
learned  and  interesting  papers  on  the  Mound  Builders  of 
Ohio,  leads  me  to  believe  that  the  official  residence  of  the 
Governor  of  that  ancient  people  was  either  at  Circleville  or 
Newark,  where  now  are  found  their  most  extensive  monu- 
ments. Columbus,  as  a  capital  or  official  residence,  seems  not 
to  have  been  considered  by  the  Mound  Builders.  I  doubt  not 
there  were  in  that  early  day  aspiring  gentlemen  who  coveted 
the  appointment  of  Governor  to  this  northern  province,  both 
for  the  honor  and  the  opportunity  of  enriching  themselves  in 
the  copper  mining  business  of  Lake  Superior,  a  branch  of  in- 
dustry early  developed  by  that  people  on  this  continent.  But 
that  was  a  long  time  ago.  Few  desire  to  be  Governor  of  Ohio 
now, — our  statesmen  prefer  to  be  President. 

But  to  be  serious.  I  believe  in  the  legend  of  the  lost  At- 
lantis— the  island  of  Plato — the  garden  of  the  Hesperides — 
the  islands  of  the  Blessed — the  Elysian  fields  of  Greek  my- 
thology— the  land  of  the  true  and  original  Olympus,  beyond 
the  pillars  of  Hercules,  "in  the  Ocean  beyond  Africa,"  on  the 
borders  of  the  then  known  world  to  the  Egyptian,  Phoeni- 
cian and  later  Greek,  "where  the  sun  shone  when  it  had 
ceased  to  shine  on  Greece" — where  the  mighty  Atlas,  a  real 
personage  and  king,  ruled  and  figuratively  "upheld  the 
heavens" — in  a  word,  the  great  empire  island  of  Atlantis  in 
the  midst  of  the  Atlantic  Ocean,  larger  than  England,  whose 
character,  government  and  colonial  dominion  is  a  modern  du- 
plicate of  Atlantis  and  a  happ}r  illustration  of  its  pre-historic 


218  SOUTH    SIDE    PARK DEDICATORY. 

prototype — the  Eden  of  the  human  race,  where  dawned  and 
developed  civilization,  and  from  whose  shores  colonies  were 
planted  in  Peru  and  Mexico,  and  along  the  shores  of  the  Med- 
iterranean in  the  ages  long  before  Egypt  was  Egypt,  or  Greece 
was  Greece.  A  nation  of  agriculture  and  arts ;  a  nation  of 
ships  and  commerce  when  Poseidon  (Neptune)  was  admiral 
of  the  seas,  whose  barbed  trident  typified  his  triple  dominion 
in  the  ocean  surrounding  Atlantis,  and  the  waters  of  its  widely 
separated  colonies  of  Egypt  and  Peru — the  island  which,  ac- 
cording to  Plato,  fortified  by  the  legends  of  widely  separated 
peoples  of  antiquity,  and  demonstrated  by  the  irresistible 
proofs  of  modern  scientific,  archaeological  and  philological  re- 
search, was  "  overwhelmed  by  violent  earthquakes  and  floods, 
disappeared  and  was  sunk  beneath  the  sea."  The  Azores,  with 
their  volcanic  peaks  of  8,000  feet,  still  retaining  in  their  bo- 
som their  ancient  fires,  are  all  that  remains  above  the  waves 
to  mark  the  site  of  the  first  and  mightiest  empire  of  the 
world.  So  remote  is  its  antiquity  that  the  names  of  its  kings, 
heroes  and  heroines,  who  were  as  human  as  ourselves,  became, 
after  the  lapse  of  ages,  the  gods  and  goddesses  of  mythology. 
The  names  and  deeds  of  the  Atlanteans  are  the  basis  of  and 
underlie  the  whole  category  of  the  mythical  legends  conceived 
in  the  ages  of  the  unlettered  infancy  and  simplicity  of  peoples^ 
tribes  and  nations  from  Gibraltar  to  the  Ganges. 

To  the  geologist  this  hemisphere  is  no  longer  the  New 
World.  The  peaks  of  the  Andes  and  Cordilleras  pointed  high 
toward  the  heavens,  when' the  Himalayas  and  the  Alps  were 
yet  submerged  in  the  waters  of  the  globe.  The  archaeologist 
discovers  in  Peru  the  monuments  of  an  empire  coeval  with 
Egypt,  the  ruins  of  whose  temples  and  palaces  of  elaborately 
chiseled  stone  are  unsurpassed,  and  whose  highways  of  two 
thousand  miles  in  length,  cut  in  the  rock  along  snowy  moun- 
tain sides,  and  arched  viaducts  across  valle3rs,  equal  in  aston- 
ishment the  pyramids  and  the  wall  of  China.  The  Mound 
Builder  was  settled  upon  the  banks  of  the  Cuyahoga  before 


SOUTH    SIDE    PARK DEDICATORY.  219 

the  captivity  of  Jndah ;  before  the  train  of  Esther  swept 
through  the  palace  of  Ahasuerus ;  before  that  little  unpleas- 
antness between  the  Prime  Minister  of  Pharaoh  and  Mrs. 
General  Potiphar,  and  long  before  Moses  made  any  "  mis- 
takes. " 

Then,  after  a  cycle,  came  the  red  man  and  pitched  his  wig- 
wam upon  these  grounds,  but  bringing  with  him  no  tradition- 
ary legends  of  the  Mound  Builder.  Two  hundred  years  ago 
where  we  now  stand,  Christianit}r  was  taught  him  by  the 
French  missionaries,  and  from  here  were  written  letters,  now 
extant  in  the  archives  of  France,  to  Madame  Maintenon,  the 
wife  of  Louis  XIV..  descriptive  of  the  Indians,  the  forests  and 
rivers  upon  the  borders  of  Lake  Erie,  and  the  first  description 
or  mention  on  paper  of  the  wonderful  Falls,  over  which  are 
discharged  the  blue  waters  of  this  magnificent  chain  of  lakes. 

Less  than  a  year  ago  I  was  told  by  an  intelligent  gentle- 
man, since  deceased,  who  lived  here  in  1833,  that  when  offi- 
cers of  the  U.  S.  Army  were  on  their  way  to  Washington  with 
the  Indian  warrior  Black  Hawk,  a  day  was  spent  here  to  en- 
able their  captive  to  launch  a  canoe  and  glide  up  to  one  of  the 
bluffs  just  above  here  to  a  locality  which  he  pointed  out  as 
the  exact  place  where  the  wigwam  stood  in  which  he  was 
born,  and  the  grave  of  his  mother.  That  locality,  as  described 
to  me,  is  the  high  bluff  and  plateau  where  the  river  ap- 
proaches nearest  on  the  south  side  of  and  included  within 
Riverside  Cemetery  grounds.  I  asked  my  informant  if  the 
savage  evinced  any  emotion,  common  to  civilized  man  under 
like  circumstances.  He  said:  "Yes,  every  manifestation 
but  tears ;  the  nervous  excitement,  the  expanding  chest,  the 
quivering  lips."  Every  phase  of  humanity  was  exalted,  in  my 
estimation,  when  I  heard  that  the  Napoleon  of  a  savage  em- 
pire could  turn  aside  from  his  journey,  to  visit  the  scenes  of 
his  forest  childhood  and  a  wild  mother's  grave. 

And  now  indulge  me  in  congratulating  my  West  and  South 
Side  friends  in  that  your  lines  have  fallen  in  pleasant  places. 


220  SOUTH    SIDE    PARK DEDICATORY. 

You  are  enabled,  in  this  year  of  grace,  to  tread  high  above  the 
once  dreaded  valley  over  arches  which  will  endure  forever. 
This  park,  more  ample  than  the  renowned  Academic  groves 
under  whose  foliage  Pericles,  beloved  of  the  beautiful  Aspasia, 
was  wont  to  listen  to  the  wisdom  of  Socrates,  will  yield  you 
and  your  children  its  grateful  shade  while  you  live  ;  and,  when 
life's  journey  is  ended,  birds  will  forever  make  melody  above 
your  rest  in  the  delightful  dells  of  Riverside. 


THE    COW    IN    COURT.  221 


THE  COW  IN  COURT. 


Facetious  pundils— Remarkable  legal  correspondence.  The  letters 
herewith  printed,  concerning  the  celebrated  cow  case,  which  has 
divided  the  agitation  of  the  world  with  the  Tichborne  claimant  case 
and  the  Newburgh  coon  hunt,  will  be  studied  with  profound  interest. 
We  commend  the  authorities  cited  to  the  careful  scrutinj'  of  the 
reader.  The  importance  of  this  correspondence  can  best  be  appre- 
ciated when  it  is  considered  that  one  dollar  and  fifty  cents,  pound 
fees,  inspired  the  great  legal  struggle. — [Cleveland  Plain  Dealer.] 

Dec.  2,  1879. 

TV /T ESSRS.  S.  and  H.— The  soul  of  thy  servant  is  sad  in 
*•*•*•  view  of  the  discovery  this  day,  that  you  have  thus  far 
neglected  to  file  a  petition  in  the  great  appeal  case  of 
Stoneman  against  City  of  Cleveland,  impleaded  with  our 
Bohemian- American  citizen,  M.  Nimick,  keeper  of  our  muni- 
cipal pound,  in  and  for  the  fourteenth  ward ;  said  proceed- 
ings being  a  sort  of  zoological  habeas  corpus,  or  action  of 
replevin  of  two  romantic  and  festive  animals,  commonly 
called  cows,  arrested  and  imprisoned,  having  been  caught  in 
the  very  act  of  running  at  large  and  browsing  in  a  neighbor's 
corn-field,  within  the  walls  of  the  city,  contrary  to  the  ordi- 
nances, aggravated,  moreover,  by  the  circumstance  that  the 
offence  was  on  the  Sabbath-day,  commonly  called  Sunday, 
when  the  owner  of  the  field,  with  his  man-servants  and  his 
maid-servants,  and  all  his  household,  had  gone  up  into  the 
high  places  to  worship. 

Now,  gentlemen,  be  ye  hereby  notified  that  unless,  without 
further  delay,  you  take  the  proper  legal  steps  to  prosecute 
your  suit,  by.  filing  your  petition,  the  defendants  will  resort 
to  the  statutory  remedy  in  such  case  made  and  provided,. 


222  THE    COW    IN    COURT. 

greatly,  I  doubt  not,  to  the  professional  humiliation  of  }Tour 
honorable  firm  and  to  the  cost  of  your  client. 

Respectfully,  F.  T.  W. 


Dec.  3,  1879. 

F.  T.  W.,  ESQ.  Sir  : — Had  we  not  seen  the  signature,  or 
had  you  omitted  it  entirely  from  the  letter  or  "  call "  you 
addressed  to  us,  and  which  we  found  on  our  desk  last  evening, 
we  should  nevertheless  have  divined  that  none  other  but 
yourself  could  have  penned  it,  and  one  reason  is  that  it  fairly 
breathed  classics  (bucolics  ?).  In  that  letter  you  call  our 
attention  to  the  now  become  famous  cow-pound  case  of 
Stoneman  vs.  the  City  of  Cleveland,  in  which  case  }TOU 
appeared  on  behalf  of  the  city  and  so  ably  defended.  In 
order  to  designate  the  case  more  clearly  you  mention  the  fact 
that  it  is  a  replevin  case.  These  two  features  or  elements  at 
once  brought  to  our  mind  the  full  history  of  that  remarkable 
and  intricate  case,  and  although  it  involves  a  fine  and  nice 
question  of  law,  we  yet  feel  that  its  appeal  by  you  was  done 
ignorant  of  the  care  and  research  of  the  learned  J.  P.  who 
decided  the  case — and  of  course  decided  it  in  our  favor — 
and  had  j'ou  known  of  the  study  and  care  he  gave  to  the 
question,  }~ou  could  not  and  wrould  not  have  taken  a  single 
step  further.  Sir,  we  are  reliably  informed  that  said  J.  P. 
consulted  the  following  authorities,  which  are  all  in  point 
(for  us)  as  he  says,  viz.  :  Bracton,  Britton,  Fleta,  Littleton, 
Sir  Edward  Coke,  Sir  William  Blackstone  ;  also  the  Tractatus 
Tractatum ;  Du  Moulinis  commentarii  in  "  priores  tres 
Titulos  consuetudinis  Parisiensis "  and  the  more  modern 
treatises  of  Monsieur  Germain  Antoine  Gyotte  and  Monsieur 
Herve.  He  found  no  authorities  in  your  favor.  Mark  that ! 
After  divulging  these  facts  to  you  we  do  not  doubt  but  that 
you  will  at  once  withdraw  the  case  and  files  from  the  custody 
of  the  clerk,  abandon  all  further  litigation  and  thereby  save 
yourself  from  an  ignominious  defeat  in  this  case. 


THE    COW    IN    COURT.  223 

Should  you  still  persist  in  your  course,  then  we  shall  be 
compelled  to  file  our  petition  in  accordance  with  the  statute 
in  such  case  made  and  provided.  Nevertheless,  for  remind- 
ing us  of  our  duty  in  this  regard,  please  accept  our  warmest 
thanks,  and  believe  us  when  we  say  that  no  one,  it  seems  to 
us,  can  excel  }TOU  in  extending  courtesies  to  your  fellow 
members  of  the  bar.  It  is  truly  a  pleasure  to  meet  and  do 
business  on  that  basis. 

Respectfully  yours,  S.  &  H. 


Dec.  5th,  1879. 

Messrs.  S.  &  H.  : — I  have  your  pleasant  and  graceful 
response  to  my  note,  touching  the  status  of  the  pleadings  in 
our  cow  case,  and  would,  in  view  of  }*our  generous  personal 
allusion,  gladly  rest  without  reply,  but  for  the  air  of  triumph 
that  pervades  each  and  every  line  of  your  note.  This  my 
spirit  can  not  brook.  That  you  succeeded  before  the  Justice 
of  the  Peace  is  most  true.  That  I  was  beaten  on  the  author- 
ities }TOU  quote  is  quite  likely,  as  they  are  the  most  pertinent 
you  could  cite,  but  that  they  were  the  result  of  the  researches 
of  the  magistrate  I  deny.  I  venture  that  those  several 
authorities  and  more  can  be  found  on  your  own  voluminous 
brief  furnished  to  his  honor  after  trial,  after  decision  reserved, 
and  after  I  had  left  the  Presence.  Gentlemen,  you  are  alto- 
gether too  modest  in  crediting  so  much  learning  to  the  court. 
It  is  apparent  to  me  that  you  stuffed  that  Justice  of  the 
Peace  with  the  spiced  mince-meats  of  the  Albany  Law  School 
till  he  was  as  plump  as  a  bologna  sausage.  I  recognize  in 
jour  collation  of  learned  authorities  the  happ3T  results  of  the 
curriculum  of  two  renowned  institutions  of  learning — Oberlin 
College  and  University  of  Michigan.  But  your  "  instances  " 
are  altogether  too  modern,  to  sa}^  nothing  of  the  wisdom  of 
your  "  saws." 

I  care  not  for  the  customs  of  Paris,  or  the  institutions  of 
Romulus.  My  reliance  in  this  case  is  upon  the  Gentoo  laws, 


224  THE    COW    IN    COURT. 

administered  by  our  Aryan  forefathers  in  the  valleys  of  the 
Punjaub  and  on  the  slopes  of  the  Himalayas  in  Central  Asiar 
seven  thousand  years  ago,  embalmed  in  the  Sanskrit  language, 
before  Rome  was  ;  before  the  Slav  trod  the  steppes  of  Astra- 
khan and  the  valley  of  the  lower  Danube  ;  before  the  Teuton 
planted  grapes  upon  the  banks  of  the  Rhine,  and  when  busy 
England  was  a  forest ;  in  fact,  before  the  honorable  and 
venerable  Daniel  R.  Tilden  assumed  the  ermine  of  judicial 
office. 

Should  your  client  insist  upon  going  on  with  this  case 
(against  your  advice  as  I  shall  believe),  then  your  legal 
ingenuity  will  be  taxed  to  avoid  the  force  of  the  Gentoo 
statute,  which  provides  as  follows  : 

"  If  any  man  hath  laid  up  hay  in  a  garden,  or  any  other 
place,  to  feed  his  own  cattle,  and  another  person's  cow,  or 
buffalo,  or  horse,  or  camel,  or  elephant,  or  any  other  animal, 
should  eat  that  hay,  or  should  eat  the  crop  upon  any  man's 
ground,  or  should  go  into  any  man's  house,  or  garden,  or 
tilled  land,  upon  such  fault,  that  person  has  power  to  catch 
and  bind  (impound)  the  aforesaid  animals,  and  may  also 
slightly  beat  them." 

See  Gentoo  Code  or  Ordinations  of  the  Pundits,  Persian- 
Sanskrit  translation  by  commission  of  learned  Pundits  (law- 
yers), by  command  of  Warren  Hastings,  Governor  General  of 
Hindoostan,  page  201.  London  1776.  In  library  of  Bushnell 
White,  Esq.,  Pundit.  See  also  Bertsch  Untersuchungen 
iiber  cfas  Nibeliingenlied,  p.  184.  Vienna,  1865.  Likewise 
peruse  in  extenso,  Examen  important  de  Milord  Bolingbroke 
ou  le  Tombeau  du  Fanatisme.  Par.  M.  Voltaire.  GEuvres 
Completes,  Tome  Vingtiemo,  p.  104,  Paris,  1860.  Especially, 
Absence  of  Caloric  in  Icebergs  Accounted  for.  By  A.  Nony- 
mous,  p.  550.  Boston,  1879.  A  fascinating  work,  just  out. 
The  God  Apis,  or  Egyptian  Worship  of  the  Cow's  Husband. 
Vide  Book  of  the  Dead.  Consult  John  Erwin,  Esq.,  Egypt- 
ologist. Last,  but  not  least,  notice  " Comparative  Analysis. 


THE    COW    IN    COURT.  225 

of  Cow's,  Gamers  and  Tartar  Mare's  Milk  and  Test  of  Oleo- 
margarine Butter,"  by  Conrad  Beck,  Superintendent  of, 
Markets,  Cleveland,  Ohio.  Advance  sheets  of  work  in  press. 
Whatever  may  be  the  result  of  this  suit  in  the  higher 
courts,  I  trust  that  next  summer  your  client  will  refrain  from 
letting  his  cows,  buffalo,  Bactrian  camel,  or  elephant  run  at 
large  to  the  despoliation  of  neighboring  gardens  and  corn- 
fields in  violation  of  the  Gentoo  law. 

Respectfully,  F.  T.  W. 


15 


226  SHERLOCK    J.    ATS7DREWS 


SHERLOCK  J.  ANDREWS— A  MEMORY  AND  A  TEAR. 


TT  is  finished.  The  public  journals  have  pronounced  a  tri- 
umphant  verdict  upon  a  life  of  eighty  years.  The  bar  and 
the  courts  have  co-operated  in  making  up  the  most  beautiful 
and  appreciative  summary  of  the  characteristics  and  labors  of 
a  life  that  has  ever  been  placed  upon  our  judicial  records. 

Br}'ant  expressed  a  poetic  desire  to  die  in  June.  But  here, 
in  midwinter's  discontent,  nature  seemed  m  sympathy  when 
Andrews  was  laid  to  rest.  Who  ever  saw  such  a  day?  It 
was  the  poetry  of  winter.  The  earth  covered  with  a  mantle 
of  new  snow,  pure  as  the  spirit  departed.  The  air  still  and 
suggestive  of  April.  The  trees,  seemingly  conscious  of  an 
eventful  day,  had  arrayed  themselves  in  loveliest  robes,  glis- 
tening in  the  sun,  still  as  death  itself,  save  when  some  tiny 
twig,  under  the  influence  of  the  sun,  would  drop  its  burden  of 
pearls  and  diamonds,  and  mournfully  tremble  as  we  all  have 
witnessed  the  quivering  lips  of  the  honored  dead. 

Recognizing  that  it  is  the  province  of  the  peers  of  the  legal 
profession,  and  especially  of  the  early  cotemporaries  and  per- 
sonal intimates  of  him  we  mourn,  to  speak  the  fitting  words 
of  grief  and  praise  which  crowd  upon  the  tongue  for  utterance, 
I  deem  it  my  privilege  only  to  express  my  exceeding  gratifi- 
cation, not  alone  for  the  appropriate  resolutions,  but  especi- 
ally for  the  just  and  noble  sentiments,  and  the  many  felicitous 
and  sympathetic  expressions  of  a  generous  and  appreciative 
bar.  Nevertheless,  as  none  among  us  can  tire  of  hearing 
Aristides  called  the  Just,  I  crave  the  indulgence  of  a  memory 
and  a  tear. 


A    MEMORY    AND    A    TEAR.  227 

In  1854,  for  the  first  time,  I  looked  into  the  old  court  house 
on  the  Public  Square.  Sherlock  J.  Andrews,  with  a  green 
silk  shade  over  his  eyes,  the  dome  of  his  handsome  head  tow- 
ering above  it,  was  sitting  at  the  trial  table.  James  Mason 
was  associated  with  him,  while  the  alert  and  impetuous  Ed- 
ward Wade  was  their  competitor.  I  had  heard  of  the  fame  of 
Judge  Andrews  in  New  England.  I  lingered  to  hear  his  ad- 
dress to  the  jury.  It  is  unnecessary  to  say  it  proved  a  de- 
light. It  had  been  among  the  pleasant  memories  of  early 
manhood  that  I  had  heard  Mr.  Webster  at  the  bar,  and  on 
many  occasions  had  witnessed  the  forensic  displays  of  the 
matchless  Choate,  and  from  the  moment  to  which  I  allude  I 
felt  that  Judge  Andrews  was  one  of  the  three  foremost  advo- 
cates of  our  time.  Twenty-five  years  have  not  modified  that 
estimate.  He  was  the  just  pride  of  the  legal  profession,  as  he 
was  the  recognized  head  and  father  of  the  Cleveland  Bar. 

Nature  laid  the  foundation  for  a  perfect  man,  and  culture 
crowned  creation  in  our  lamented  friend.  We  see  in  our  in- 
verted vision  a  retiring  and  decorous  student,  conning  his 
Virgil  and  cooling  his  fair  brow  beneath  the  elms  of  Yale. 
A  spectator  in  that  temple  of  Themis  where  he  acquired  by 
.observation,  and  obtained  as  by  natural  selection,  his  perfect 
model  of  professional  and  judicial  decorum,  even  before  he 
was  admitted  within  its  distinguished  circles.  There  in  his 
native  county  he  looked  upon  and  listened  to  such  lawyers  as 
Zephania  Swift,  David  Dagget,  Roger  M.  Sherman,  Roger  S. 
Baldwin,  Ralph  I.  Ingersoll,  Dennis  Kimberly  and  William 
W.  Boardman,  who  preeminently  graced  and  adorned  the  law 
•during  his  student  days.  Such  culture  and  graces  he  brought 
to  a  Western  village,  and  which  have  served  as  a  guide  and 
an  inspiration  to  every  educated  young  lawyer  of  the  Cleve- 
land Bar  for  fifty  years. 

We  are  led  to  reflect  that  the  amenities  of  Judge  Andrews' 
mind  are  attributable  in  no  small  degree  to  that  taste  for 
.science  and  philosophy  which  he  acquired  by  his  early  asso- 


228  SHERLOCK    J.    ANDREWS  — 

elation  with  the  elder  Silliman,  and  which  came  near  losing 
him  to  the  law.  Had  chemistry  triumphed,  we  should  have 
had  a  distinguished  professor  instead  of  a  renowned  advocate. 
But  enough  of  science  and  love  of  nature  remained  with  him 
through  life  to  grace  his  spirit  with  that  same  happy  gentle- 
ness which  were  the  distinguishing  characteristics  of  Hum- 
boldt,  Arago,  Agassiz,  and  our  own  Kirtland.  Reverential 
love,  which  pervades  the  minds  of  all  classes  of  men,  pays 
tribute  to  such.  When  the  armed  mob  of  Berlin  sacked  the 
private  residences  of  eminent  citizens,  they  thundered  a£  the 
door  of  Humboldt,  not  knowing  who  lived  there.  The  vener- 
able occupant  appeared  at  the  door.  They  demanded  his 
name.  The  answer,  Von  Humboldt.  They  saluted  him,  and 
turning,  shouted,  "This  is  Yon  Humboldt's  house;  let  it 
alone." 

"  Lift  not  the  spear  against  the  Muse's  bower. 

The  great  Emathian  conquerer  bid  spare 
The  house  of  Pindarus,  when  temple  and  tower 

Went  to  the  ground.     And  the  repeated  air 
Of  sad  Electra's  poet  had  the  power 

To  save  the  Athenian  walls  from  ruin  bare." 

It  is  only  within  the  last  few  }^ears  that  the  writer  has  ap- 
preciated Judge  Andrews  as  a  reader  of  the  literature  of 
science.  He  watched  the  progress  of  astronomical  and  geo- 
logical science  silently  and  quietly,  but  with  a  deeper  interest 
than  many  knew.  Not  manj^  weeks  since,  in  one  of  those 
brief  and  pleasant  interviews  he  was  wont  to  give  to  those  who 
sought  him,  I  was  startled  at  his  wonderful  conception  of  the 
eternity  of  the  past.  In  discussing,  however,  the  probable 
time  when  the  coal  deposits  of  Ohio  were  formed  and  stored 
in  the  rock,  we  alluded  to  an  eminent  scientist  and  popular 
writer,  who  gave  the  lapse  of  ages  past  as  "countless  millions 
of  geological  cycles."  The  Judge,  with  inimitable  facetious- 
ness,  said  he  had  himself  regarded  it  as  being  a  good  while 
ago,  but  he  had  never  been  able  to  fix  the  time  with  such 


A    MEMORY    AND    A    TEAR.  229 

exactness.  He  had  withal  a  beautiful  and  not  altogether  po- 
etic conception  of  the  wonderful  plateau  upon  which  our  city 
is  built,  and  over  which  its  broad  avenues  are  laid,  as  being 
alike  the  graveyard  of  the  mastodon  and  the  mound  builder. 
It  is  only  when  such  men  die  that  we  seriously  reflect  upon 
immortality.  It  is  then  that  the  divinity  stirring  within  us 
points  out  an  hereafter  and  intimates  eternity  to  man.  Is  the 
spirit  of  our  great  friend  with  Virgil  and  Dante  and  Milton, 
"wandering  in  the  meads  of  Asphodel"?  Has  it  saluted 
kindred  spirits  in  Burke,  Sheridan  and  Choate  ?  Has  he 
greeted  Silliman,  Agassiz  and  Kirtland  ?  Has  he  been  rec- 
ognized by  Aiken  and  Goodrich,  and  led  up  to  more  effulgent 
light  ?  Has  he  embraced  the  dearly  beloved  that  have  gone 
before  him  ?  As  silence  is  ever  the  answer,  we  can  only  say, 
Hail  and  farewell. 

f 


230  QUESTIONS    ANSWERED. 


QUESTIONS  ANSWERED/ 


PHE  thoughts  of  a  man  of  the  past  can  be  of  no  moment 
to  the  men  of  the  present.  The  event,  however,  of 
General  Garfield's  nomination  for  the  Presidency  (1880),  leads 
me  to  reflect  that  I  have  participated  in  a  humble  way  in  all 
the  Presidential  contests  since  the  memorable  campaign  of 
'  Tippecanoe  and  Tyler  too,'  of  which  this  is  the  fortieth  anni- 
versary. It  was  the  men  of  Ohio  who  gave  inspiration  to 
that  National  canvass,  furnishing  as  they  did  the  first  Presi- 
dential candidate  from  the  now  powerful  Northwest.,  I  look 
upon  the  result  of  the  Chicago  Convention  as  indicating  the 
possibilit}T  of  saving  his  party  yet  a  while  from  disintegration. 
The  name  of  General  Garfield,  in  my  judgment,  furnishes 
better  assurance  for  the  future  of  his  party  than  could  that 
of  any  of  the  distinguished  gentlemen  who  so  long  and  so 
persistently  divided  the  consideration  of  the  Convention, 
His  nomination,  however,  I  attribute  more  to  the  bright  halo 
around  his  head  when  he  uttered  that  judicious  and  admir- 
able speech  in  the  Convention,  than  to  his  record  in  war  or 
his  services  in  the  councils  of  the  Nation,  however  good  the- 
one  or  eminent  the  other. 

My  convictions  have  ever  been  that  political  parties  do 
themselves  most  honor  and  the  country  the  highest  service, 
in  the  contingency  of  success,  when  they  bestow  the  presi- 
dential candidacy  upon  their  best  specimens  of  manhood  and 
statesmanship.  I  feel  in  a  spirit  to  congratulate  our  local 

*  Answers  to  interrogations  of  the  Cleveland  Herald  on  its  receipt 
of  the  news  of  General  Garfield's  nomination  for  the  Presidency  by 
the  Chicago  convention,  June,  1880. 


QUESTIONS    ANSWERED.  231 

Republican  friends  on  the  nomination  of  General  Garfield,  for 
therein  I  recognize  a  healthy  rebuke  alike  to  the  retainers  of 
stolid  political  aspirants  and  the  admirers  of  iceberg  states- 
manship. With  a  severity  of  partisanship,  born  of  the  vicis- 
situdes of  war,  and  twenty  years  of  political  domination, 
aggravated  by  the  prejudices  of  a  rural  constituency  and  of 
an  exacting  majority  in  the  halls  of  Congress,  he  has,  never- 
theless, evinced  talents,  equal  with  the  peers  of  the  Senate ; 
and  possessing,  as  happily  he  does,  genial  and  generous 
impulses,  he  has  within  him  the  potency  and  promise  for 
broader  views  in  a  more  exalted  station. 

I  am  not  in  consultation  with  live  men,  and  possess  no 
knowledge  of  Democratic  views  or  plans.  I  think  only  my 
own  thoughts  and  am  inspired  only  by  my  own  reflections. 
The  Republican  party  should  now  be  considered  by  the  Cin- 
cinnati Convention  as  a  new  and  formidable  ship  of  war 
sailing  into  an  unfortified  harbor,  and  sending  a  menacing 
and  defiant  shot  across  the  bows  of  the  old  Democratic  ship, 
dismantled  and  laid  up  for  twenty  years  in  dry  dock,  which 
goes  booming  and  crashing  among  the  planks  and  timbers  in 
the  old  political  navy  yard.  They  should  float  her  again, 
trim  her  sails,  furnish  her  a  new  admiral,  summon  her  gallant 
crew,  and  give  her  to  the  political  storm.  That  convention, 
if  wise,  will  name  its  brightest  and  ablest  man,  from  whatso- 
ever State  he  may  hail.  They  surely  will  not  call  him  '  from 
Appomattox.'  They  cannot  call  him  from  a  divided  Demo- 
cratic State.  They  will  be  forced  of  necessitj^  to  take  him 
from  Ohio,  that  he  may  contest,  inch  by  inch,  the  ground  of 
his  distinguished  competitor.  There  is  but  one  man  in  the 
United  States,  and  that  is  an  Ohio  man,  who  can  contest  this 
State  with  possibilities  in  his  favor,  against  the  Republican 
nominee,  and  that  is  he  who,  more  than  twenty  years  ago, 
when  accepting  the  Democratic  nomination  for  Governor,  at 
a  time  when  his  party  was  in  a  minority  of  nearly  eighty 
thousand,  said  :  "  In  the  battle  in  which  we  are  engaged  I  ask 


232  QUESTIONS    ANSWERED. 

no  Democrat  to  go  where  I  am  not  first  found,  bearing  the 
standard  which  you  have  placed  in  my  hands."  And  the 
subsequent  great  Secretary  of  the  Treasury  during  the  war 
barely  succeeded  in  the  contest  by  less  than  a  thousand  votes. 
It  is  the  Ohio  Democrat  who,  when  elected  to  Congress  by  a 
majority  of  nearly  three  thousand,  in  a  district  whose  Repub- 
lican majority  is  ordinarily  from  five  thousand  to  seven 
thousand,  said  :  "  If  life  is  spared  I  will  return  to  you  at  the 
end  of  my  term  with  hand  and  heart  as  undefiled  as  when  I 
left  you" — and  kept  the  faith.  It  is  an  Ohio  man  who  for 
thirty  years  has  stood  higher  in  business  and  financial  circles, 
and  among  the  statesmen  and  politicians  of  the  Empire  State, 
than  any  other  Western  man,  and  who  can  take  the  vote  of 
her  united  Democracy.  It  is  the  Ohio  man  who  is  admired 
of  his  party  in  Illinois  for  his  labors  in  behalf  of  Stephen  A. 
Douglas,  with  whom,  in  their  youth,  he  divided  his  last 
hundred  dollars  to  enable  the  "little  giant"  to  reach  the  soil 
of  the  Prairie  State.  With  such  an  Ohio  man  the  Democracy 
of  the  State  and  Nation  will  be  inspired  to  noble  and  honor- 
able efforts,  and  the  spirit  of  the  two  honorable  champions 
will  be  as  the  clash  and  clang  of  intellectual  scimetars.  In 
such  an  event  Ohio  may  be  set  down  at  least  as  among  the 
most  doubtful  of  doubtful  States. 

The  Fire  Lands  have  given  to  the  country  a  President ;  so 
it  may  be  given  unto  the  Reserve  to  furnish  another,  be  he 
Republican  or  Democrat.  As  Judea  was  once  the  battle- 
ground between  the  Pharaohs  of  the  Nile  and  the  monarchs 
of  the  Euphrates,  so  will  be  Ohio  between  mightier  hosts  in 
the  coming  campaign.  Should  the  Republican  Pharaohs 
triumph,  let  them  take  the  spoil.  If,  however,  the  Demo- 
cratic Cambyses  should  swoop  down  and  overturn  the  statue 
of  vocal  Memnon  (at  Mentor)  and  prostrate  the  temples  of 
Republican  Thebes,  no  "cloud"  would  come  over  the  land, 
though  the  worshipers  of  the  political  Isis  and  Osiris  might 
mourn  over  the  fallen  columns. 


RECOLLECTIONS    OF    ADELAIDE    PHILLIPS.  233 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  ADELAIDE  PHILLIPS. 


^PHE  advent  of  Adelaide  Phillips  at  the  Cleveland  Opera 
House  the  past  week,  has  awakened  in  the  mind  of  the 
writer  pleasant  memories  of  more  than  thirty  }^ears.  The 
month  of  February,  1848,  developed  events  of  exciting  interest 
in  the  city  of  Boston,  and  of  vast  import  to  this  county  and 
to  Europe.  Field  had  not  yet  spanned  the  Atlantic  with  his 
cable,  nor  had  Wade  stretched  his  electric  wires  over  the 
continent  to  the  Golden  Gate.  Almost  at  the  same  moment 
two  vessels  arrived  in  the  harbor  of  Boston.  One  from 
"around  the  Horn,"  the  other  a  Cunarder  from  Liverpool. 
The  first  told  of  the  discovery  of  Gold  at  Sutler's  mill  in 
California,  the  second  of  the  fall  of  the  throne  of  Louis 
Philippe,  the  elevation  of  Lamertine  as  Provisional  President, 
and  Ledru  Rollin  as  the  first  statesman  of  the  French  Re- 
public. 

The  remains  of  John  Quincy  Adams  laid  in  state  at  Faneuil 
Hall,  Everett  pronounced  a  famous  oration,  the  Governor  and 
Council  and  the  whole  body  of  the  Senate  and  House  of 
Representatives  of  Massachusetts,  then  in  session,  followed 
the  dead  statesman  to  his  tomb  in  Quincy. 

The  French  revolution,  however,  was  the  dominant  theme. 
Orators  aired  their  vocabularies  over  "1776"  and  "1789." 
Theaters  took  advantage  of  the  new  outburst  of  patriotism, 
and  the  scenes  of  Paris  were  dramatized  and  played  with 
unabated  interest  daring  the  winter.  Boston  then  had  its 
National,  Haymarket  and  Federal  street  theaters,  good  as 
theaters  in  general,  as  also  its  Athenaeum  and  its  Adelphi, 
which  two  latter  represented  the  extremes  of  society — the 


234  RECOLLECTIONS    OF    ADELAIDE    PHILLIPS. 

elite  of  Boston  opera  goers  and  the  free  and  easy  patron 
of  the  cheap  Comique.  But  as  all  these,  however  respectable, 
were  nevertheless  regarded  as  sinful  institutions  by  many 
good  people  in  Boston,  and  more  especially  so  by  the  sedate 
people  of  the  surrounding  towns,  there  had  at  a  time  arisen  a 
want  of  some  "  truly  good  "  place  of  public  entertainment  for 
this  class  of  the  communit}^.  Moses  Kimball,  a  wit,  a  wag,  a 
sober  man  and  eminent  citizen,  a  member  of  the  Legislature 
more  times  than  any  other  man,  the  Barnum  of  Boston,  had 
been  raised  up  under  Providence  to  supply  a  great  necessity  r 
and  which  he  did  through  his  elegant  structure,  known  as  the 
Boston  Museum.  It  was  a  museum  in  reality,  supplied  with 
the  curiosities  of  the  world,  from  the  mummy,  abstracted  from 
the  rocky  tombs  of  the  Upper  Nile,  to  the  What-do-ye-call-it  ? 
half  human  and  half  fish,  created  by  Yankee  ingenuity,  and 
from  the  fossil  elephant  of  Siberia  to  the  stuffed  skin  of  the 
striped  squirrel  of  the  New  England  corn-field. 

But  above  and  beyond  the  long  corridors  of  the  Museum 
proper  was  an  immense  auditorium,  with  gallery  above 
gallery,  looking  for  all  the  world  just  like  a  wicked  and  gilded 
theater.  Here  were  wont  to  assemble  nightly  hundreds  of 
people,  who  under  no  circumstances  could  have  been  enticed 
into  a  theater,  "  so-called."  Country  clergymen,  recognized 
by  the  spotless  white  choker  of  that  day,  accompanied  b}T 
wife  and  daughter,  were  among  the  patrons  as  often  as  they 
came  to  Boston  to  attend  a  "minister's  meeting."  Here 
appeared  nightl}7  as  respectable  a  class  of  actors  as  ever 
delineated  and  illustrated  the  best'  works  of  Shakespeare's 
immortal  genius,  or  enacted  the  richest  and  choicest  farces,  or 
displayed  the  most  gorgeous  spectacular  Oriental  scenes, 
from  Aladdin's  Lamp  to  the  Enchanted  Horse.  Here  have 
arisen  stars  that  have  shone  in  tragedy,  comedy  and  opera, 
in  every  theater  of  America  and  Europe. 

The  old  Museum  stock  company  of  that  day  was,  among 
others,  composed  of  William  H.  Smith,  manager  ;  Warren,. 


RECOLLECTIONS    OF    ADELAIDE    PHILLIPS.  235- 

the  matchless  comedian,  whose  saddest  look  and  most  serious 
utterances  were  responded  to  by  vast  audiences  with  bursts- 
of  irrepressible  laughter ;  Mrs.  Barrett,  the  handsome  and 
dashing  Lady  Gay  Spanker  of  London  Assurance,  even  at 
the  age  of  sixty  years  ;  Mrs.  Judah,  the  terrible  MagMerriles; 
the  sweet-faced  Miss  Gann,  whose  career  was  but  too  brief, 
being  but  a  few  months  a  wife,  died  under  the  hands  of  her 
physician  before  she  had  looked  upon  the  face  of  her  babe, 
and  went  to  an  honored  grave  ;  last,  but  not  least,  little 
Adelaide  Phillips,  a  sweet  and  precocious  child,  the  Cinderella 
of  the  Glass  Slipper,  and  the  beloved  pet  of  every  good  man 
and  woman  of  Boston.  The  pla3~-writers  of  the  Museum  did 
not  let  the  grass  grow  under  their  feet  till  they  had  placed 
upon  the  boards  in  dramatized  form  the  stirring  events  of  the 
French  revolution  of  1848. 

In  imitation  of  the  Legislative  Assembly  of  France  to 
address  members  as  "citizen,"  it  became  for  the  time  a 
pleasantry  in  the  Massachusetts  Legislature,  as  well  as 
among  acquaintances  outside,  to  address  each  other  as 
"  citizen."  One  day  the  genial  and  friendly  Anson  Burlin- 
game  said  to  the  writer,  "  Citizen,  go  with  me  to-night  to  the 
Museum  and  see  the  new  drama,  <  The  Fall  of  the  Throne  of 
Louis  Philippe.'  "  Gladly  accepting,  I  went.  Humbly  anti- 
cipating only  an  ordinary  seat,  I  was  surprised  when  the 
future  Embassador  from  China  to  the  Western  Powers  led 
me  into  a  private  box,  where  were  already  two  of  his  personal 
friends,  Charles  Sumner  and  John  A.  Andrew,  each  then 
distinguished,  but  not  famous.  The  writer  looked  out  upon 
an  audience  among  whom  sat  many  who  to-day  are  known  of 
all  intelligent  men.  There  were  Quinc}rs,  Shaws,  Appletons, 
Whipple  and  Richard  H.  Dana,  Jr.,  the  dark  and  mystic  face 
of  Rufus  Choate,  the  lordly  presence  of  Wendell  Phillips,  the 
handsome  bald  head  and  bright  spectacles  of  William  Lloyd 
Garrison,  the  dark  and  cold  face  of  George  S.  Boutwell,  the 
grave  but  gallant  N.  P.  Banks,  the  bald  head  and  sinister 


236  RECOLLECTIONS    OF    ADELAIDE    PHILLIPS. 

eyes  of  Benjamin  F.  Butler,  Wm.  S.  Robinson,  the  "  Warring- 
ton  "  of  the  Springfield  Republican,  and  last  but  not  least, 
Henry  Wilson  and  Frank  W.  Bird,  the  latter  the  organizer  of 
the  celebrated  Bird  Club  of  the  civil  war. 

It  was  here  for  the  first  time  that  we  saw  Adelaide  Phillips, 
a  child  in  appearance — possibly  she  had  entered  her  "  teens." 
Her  part  on  this  occasion,  which  has  impressed  me  for  a  life- 
time, was  the  singing  of  the  "  Marsellaise,"  for  which  her 
clear,  ringing,  but  sympathetic  voice  seemed  far  be}'ond  her 
years.  It  was  the  first  time  I  had  ever  heard  it  from  a 
"professional,"  and  it  has  ever  since  seemed  to  me  that  if  its 
famous  author,  Rouget  DeLisle,  could  have  heard  her  render- 
ing of  his  stirring  words,  his  bones  would  have  leaped  for  joy 
in  his  coffin. 

Then  for  thirty  years  I  heard  that  voice  no  more  till  a  few 
evenings  since  at  the  Opera  House.  The  tenement  of  her 
still  glorious  spirit  seems  but  slightly  affected  by  time.  The 
ease,  the  dignity  and  the  grace  of  the  child  yet  remains  in 
the  honorable  and  beloved  woman.  The  same  peculiarly 
sweet  smile  that  played  over  her  face  in  youth  remains  to 
adorn  and  grace  her  maturer  years.  Those  who  saw  her  in 
childhood,  and  knew  her  good  repute  and  personal  worth, 
can  readily  appreciate  how  that  she  could  become  in  time  the 
'protege  of  the  alike  famous  and  good  Jenny  Lind. 

But  while  Time's  effacing  fingers  have  passed  lightly 
over  the  face  of  Adelaide  Phillips,  we  cannot  but  reflect 
upon  the  historic  events  that  have  transpired  since  her 
Marsellaise  first  sounded  in  our  ears — the  Republic  of  1848, 
followed  by  the  coup  d'etat  •  the  dynasty  of  Napoleon  Third, 
succeeded  by  the  Republic  of  1871  ;  the  civil  war  in  the 
United  States,  the  Emancipation  Proclamation,  the  freedom 
of  the  Russian  serf,  the  unification  of  Italy,  the  re-discovery 
of  the  sources  of  the  Nile,  the  Suez  Canal,  the  Pacific  rail- 
road, the  Brush  electric  light  in  Cleveland,  and  DeLesseps  at 
the  Isthmus  of  Panama. 


CLEVELAND    BAR    BANQUET.  237 


CLEVELAND  BAR  BANQUET. 


HHHIS  (1880)  has  been  preeminently  a  winter  of  banquets,  and 
-*•  yet  not  a  good  winter  for  banquets  either.  The  accom- 
plished sons  of  Amherst,' Williams,  Yale,  and  Hudson,  resi- 
dents of  this  city,  have  held  delightful  reunions,  tasted  deli- 
cious viands,  and  moistened  their  lips  at  the  classic  fountains 
of  their  youth.  I  have  observed  them  all  at  a  regretful  dis- 
tance, and  have  read  their  speeches  with  pleasure,  oblivious 
of  typographical  errors.  It  was  with  satisfaction  that  I  dis- 
covered no  such  blunder  of  the  types  as  many  years  ago  oc- 
curred in  the  printed  address  of  an  alumnus  of  Harvard, 
whose  name  is  forgotton ;  but  I  am  sure  it  was  neither  Mr. 
Sumner  nor  Richard  H.  Dana,  who  concluded  his  very  pleas- 
ing address  by  expressing  the  hope  that  they  might  again  and 
often  return  and  drink  at  the  classic  fountain  of  their  Alma. 
Mater.  But  the  printer's  devil  made  mischief  with  the  types,, 
and  the  gentleman  had  the  humiliation  the  next  morning  to 
read  that  he  had  indulged  the  anticipation  that  they  should 
often  return  to  drink  at  the  classic  fountain  of  Alum  Water ! 

This  social  reunion  of  the  Cleveland  Bar  surpasses  all,  in 
that  it  comprises,  in  addition  to  such  as  only  graduated  at  the 
"people's  college,"  nearly  all  who  participated  in  the  late  fes- 
tivities, augmented  by  scholarly  representations  of  Oberlin, 
Ann  Arbor,  Antioch,  Grambier,  Buchtel,  Berea,  and  "  Univer- 
sity Heights,"  many  of  whom,  when  their  biographies  shall  be 
written,  in  the  midst  of  a  political,  or  at  the  close  of  an  honor- 
able and  perhaps  distinguished  professional  career,  may  be 
surprised  to  learn  therefrom  that  they  too,  like  the  typical 
American  statesman,  were  not  only  born  of  "  poor  but  honest 


238  CLEVELAND    BAR    BANQUET. 

parents,"  but  also,  that  each  took  the  "first  honors  of  his 
class." 

As  there  were  feasts  before  Belshazzar's,  and  warriors  be- 
fore Agamemnon,  so  banquets  were  an  institution  of  the 
Cleveland  Bar  before  the  civil  war.  We  remember  to  have 
participated  at  a  banquet  at  the  Angier  House,  given  by  the 
Cleveland  Bar  to  the  bar  of  the  Northern  district  of  Ohio,  then 
in  attendance  on  the  United  States  District  Court,  soon  after 
the  accession  of  Judge  Willson,  the  first  judge  of  that  court. 
It  was  a  memorable  occasion,  being  honored  by  the  presence 
of  Judge  Willson  and  most  of  the  prominent  lawyers  of 
Northern  Ohio.  Waite,  Morton,  then  United  States  District 
Attorne}^ ;  George  W.  McCook,  then  late  Attorney  General  of 
Ohio ;  the  eccentric  and  witty  Tom  Ford,  afterwards  Lieuten- 
ant Governor ;  the  genial  and  silver-tongued  orator,  Judge 
Starkweather ;  Judge  Andrews,  George  Rex,  George  Bliss, 
Backus,  Bolton,  Kelley,  Collins,  Palmer,  and  Albert  T.  Shule. 
many  of  whom  made  speeches,  and  all  of  whom,  except  the 
distinguished  Chief  Justice  of  the  United  States,  have  made 
their  final  argument,  taken  their  last  exceptions,  and  gone  to 
&  higher  court. 

President  Lincoln,  like  Douglas,  had  many  acquaintances 
in  the  city,  and  early  in  his  administration  manifested  a  warm 
side  for  the  Cleveland  Bar— appointing  David  K.  Cartter, 
Minister  to  Bolivia ;  Richard  C.  Parsons,  Consul  to  Brazil ; 
William  Slade,  Consul  to  France,  and  Albert  G.  Riddle,  Con- 
sul to  Cuba.  The  bar  had  slumbered  under  its  honors,  but 
when,  in  1863,  Riddle  was  made  third  consul,  gentlemen  were 
aroused  to  a  sjense  of  Presidential  recognition,  and  as  he  had 
been  a  distinguished  advocate  and  member  of  Congress,  and 
had  done  the  State  some  service,  the  bar  gave  him  a  parting 
banquet  at  the  Kennard  House  worthy  of  the  place,  the  occa- 
sion, and  the  man. 

There  never  has  been  a  good  administration  for  diplomats 
.and  consuls  here  since.  The  Pharaohs  that  have  arisen  since 


CLEVELAND    BAR    BANQUET.  239 

have  known  no  legal  Joseph  among  us.  President  Grant's 
face  was  ever  averted,  save  in  the  single  instance  when  he 
appointed  Mr.  A.  G.  Colwell  Consul  to  Italy,  near  the  ancient 
Brundusium  on  the  Adriatic,  and  Mr.  Hayes  has  chilled  the 
hearts  of  our  brethren  of  the  bar  with  seemingly  studied  neg- 
lect. But  we  feel  encouraged,  in  behalf  of  our  professional 
friends,  now  that  we  are  to  have  a  President  who  is  to  the 
manor  born,  who  has  walked  in  our  midst  and  can  call  by 
name  numerous  members  of  the  bar,  between  whom  and  him- 
self there  has  long  been  something  of  intimacy,  political  and 
personal,  and  which  must  ultimately  bear  fruit. 

It  can  hardly  be  doubted  that  the  Cleveland  Bar  has  been 
mentally  passed  in  review  by  the  famed  man  of  Mentor,  and 
possibly  with  a  tinge  of  regret  that  some  of  its  members, 
whom  it  is  known  he  holds  in  high  personal  regard,  are  not  of 
his  own  political  household,  that  he  might  offer  the  Premier- 
ship to  one,  and  the  Supreme  Bench  to  another.  As  it  is,  how- 
ever, the  President,  after  he  shall  have  selected  his  Cabinet, 
and  smoothed  the  ruffled  front  of  his  late  great  competitors 
and  rivals,  will  be  inclined  to  turn  to  the  Cleveland  Bar  for  at 
least  one  plenipotentiary,  perhaps  one  or  two  ministers  resi 
dent  at  European  courts,  or  diplomats  at  South  American  re- 
publics. Of  consulships  there  will  doubtless  be  severa 
awarded  to  the  Reserve,  and  if  the  mantle  of  civil  service  shall 
hang  as  loosely  as  heretofore,  something  handsome  may  be  in 
store  for  gentlemen  of  the  bar  who  do  not  desire  to  reside 
abroad,  in  positions  of  honor  and  profit  at  home.  But  the 
scepter  of  Ohio  shall  depart  from  the  Treasury,  and  the  Secre- 
taryship shall  be  given  to  another  State. 

Dining,  as  observed  in  literary  and  political"  circles  in  Eng- 
land, is  in  this  country  a  lost  art.  Something  of  it,  however, 
is  preserved  and  cultivated  in  the  State  of  New  York.  With 
all  its  severe  party  discipline  and  protracted  controversies,  its 
Silver  Grays,  Freesoilers,  Hunkers,  Barnburners,  Irvings  and 
Tammanys,  the  Empire  State  has  ever  possessed  the  best 


240  CLEVELAND  BAR  BANQUET. 

types  of  political  leadership  and  statesmen  of  any  in  the- 
Union.  Politics  there  is  a  quasi  science,  cultivated  and  pro- 
moted by  social  intercourse  between  gentlemen  of  opposing 
parties,  made  possible  and  facilitated  by  the  advantage  of  a 
great  commercial  center,  where  leading  men  from  every  part 
of  the  State  are  wont  to  gather  at  frequent  intervals  and  ex- 
change opinions  and  civilities. 

Country  readers  of  metropolitan  journals  twenty  years  and 
more  ago,  whose  scripture  was  the  editorials  of  the  Tribune, 
the  Times,  the  World,  and  the  Albany  Evening  Journal, 
wherein  were  excoriated  and  criticised  the  managers  of  the 
Central  Railroad,  the  Albany  Regency,  canal  managers,  mem- 
bers of  the  Legislature  and  of  Congress,  would  have  lost  con- 
fidence in  editorial  sincerity  had  the}'  known  that  only  the  day 
before,  perhaps,  Thurlow  Weed,  Horace  Greeley,  Henry  J. 
Raymond,  William 'H.  Seward  and  General  Dix  were  dining 
together,  at  Delmonico's,  with  Manton  Marble,  Dean  Rich- 
mond, Erastus  Corning,  Horatio  Seymour,  Peter  Cagger  and 
Fernando  Wood. 

In  the  early  days  of  Cleveland  journalism,  whoever  heard 
of  J.  A.  Harris,  George  A.  Benedict,  George  Bradburn  and  J. 
W.  Gray,  with  their  respective  political  intimates,  dining  to- 
gether ?  A  thing  wholly  incompatible  in  view  of  the  political 
asperities  of  their  time.  We  pray  for  editorial  reform  in  this 
behalf,  and  when  John  C.  Keffer,  Edwin  Cowles  and  Wm.  W. 
Armstrong  and  their  political  friends  shall  socially  enjoy  their 
duck  and  toast  at  either  of  our  great  hotels,  may  we  be  there 
to  see. 

Ohio,  unlike  New  York,  has  no  commercial  center,  and 
consequent!}"  but  little  or  no  social  intercourse.  Not  wanting 
in  able  statesmen  in  both  parties,  yet  as  regards  each  other 
their  sympathies  are  sometimes  not  apparently  broad  and 
catholic,  but  circumscribed  to  a  contracted  horizon,  which  each 
views  as  did  Rasselas  the  mountains  surrounding  the  Ab}^s- 
sinian  Valley,  deeming  all  beyond  enemies.  When  and  where 


CLEVELAND  BAR  BANQUET.  241 

do  our  statesmen  greet  each  other  and  dine  together,  not  an- 
nually, but  once  in  a  decade  even  ?  Who  has  knowledge  that 
Secretary  Sherman  and  Judge  Ranney,  Senator  Thurman  and 
Judge  Taft,  Mr.  H.  B.  Payne  and  Stanley  Mathews,  Senator 
Pendleton  and  Governor  Foster  have  socially  sat  together  at 
meat  in  twenty  years  ?  It  would  be  unreasonable,  perhaps, 
to  suppose  that  gentlemen  residing  so  far  apart  as  the  remote 
limits  of  this  great  State  would  dine  together  as  often  as  New 
Yorkers,  or  that  Senator  Thurman  should  be  expected  to  send 
Mr.  Payne  a  cordial  invitation  to  dine  with  him  during  the 
ballotings  of  a  National  Democratic  Convention.  There  is, 
however,  a  time  for  everything,  saith  the  preacher,  and  Ohio 
statesmen  ought  to  dine  together  sometime,  if  it  is  not  till 
next  day. 

Great  political  events  have  followed  banquets,  and  great 
disasters  have  come  to  men  from  the  neglect  thereof.  There 
was  a  little  miniature  banquet  given  at  George  Young's,  the 
Delmonico's  of  Boston  in  1848,  the  host  whereof  was  Charles 
Sumner.  Plates  were  laid  for  only  about  twenty  persons , 
among  the  few  were  Henry  Wilson,  Anson  Burlingame, 
George  S.  Boutwell,  N.  P.  Banks,  John  A.  Andrew,  Edward 
L.  Keyes,  William  S.  Robinson  and  Frank  W.  Bird,  the  ge- 
nius of  the  celebrated  "Bird  Club  "  of  later  years.  It  was  in 
the  days  when  the  Whig  party  began  to  develop  two  wings, 
"  Cotton  and  Conscience,"  and  the  Democratic  party  was  in- 
conveniently small.  At  this  dinner  were  conceived  the  incip- 
ient plans  which  resulted  in  the  coalition  which  eventually 
gathered  power  sufficient  to  make  Democratic  Governors  of 
Boutwell  and  Banks,  place  Sumner  in  the  Senatorial  chair  of 
Webster,  Wilson  Senator  and  Vice  President,  and  Burlingame 
Minister  to  China,  and  ultimately  embassador  from  the  great 
Oriental  Empire  to  the  four  great  Western  Powers.  It  was  a 
good  banquet,  "  omnia  vidi  par  vaque  pars  fui." 

The  amenities  which  come  of  the  social  banquets  of  the 
Cleveland  Bar,  graced  by  the  presence  of  wives  and  daughters, 
16 


242  CLEVELAND    BAR  -BANQUET. 

cannot  but  enhance  the  qualifications  which  come  of  the 
learning  of  the  schools  and  the  master}'  of  the  law,  and 
further  prepare  the  prospective  diplomat  for  the  official  and 
social  position  which  now,  in  all  probability,  awaits  him  at 
foreign  courts. 


SANITARY    REGULATIONS    OF    PEKIN.  243 


SANITARY  REGULATIONS  OF  PEKIN. 


A  few  }Tears  since,  in  making  some  researches  concerning 
the  sewerage  system  of  cities,  ancient  and  modern,  for 
use  in  a  case  then  pending  in  our  courts,  involving,  as  I 
thought,  our  entire  sewerage  system,  planned,  adopted  and 
constructed  by  authority  of  statute  law  more  than  twenty 
years  ago,  having  main  outlets  into  the  lake,  the  river,  Wai- 
worth  and  Kingsbury  runs,  I  accidentally  met  with  a  quaint 
but  very  interesting  volume  of  the  last  century,  which, 
among  many  other  things,  disclosed  the  unique  but  efficient 
system  of  disposing  of  "  night-soil  and  garbage,"  as  adopted 
.and  practiced  in  the  ancient  capital  of  Genghis  Khan. 

In  1793  the  British  Government  sent  its  first  embassy  to 
China.  A  numerous  retinue  of  attaches,  scientific  men  and 
artists  accompanied  the  embassador,  and  the  noble  ship  of 
British  Oak,  splendidly  equipped  and  stored  with  every 
conceivable  article  of  English  manufacture  most  desirable  for 
presents  to  the  Emperor  and  his  court,  and  the  moguls  and 
mandarins  of  the  provinces,  sailed  around  Africa  into  the 
Indian  Ocean,  and  thence  into  the  Yellow  Sea  and  the  Gulf 
of  Pe-chi-li,  dropping  anchor  before  Tien-tsin,  where  they 
disembarked,  and  were  received  by  high  Chinese  officials  and 
conducted  with  great  pomp  and  much  ceremony  to  the 
Capital  not  many  miles  distant.  After  much  time  spent  in 
official  intercourse  at  the  Court  of  the  Empire,  the  embassy 
was  conducted  through  many  provinces,  from  Mantchooria, 
north  of  the  great  wall,  and  south  through  the  whole  six 
hundred  miles  of  the  Grand  Canal,  from  the  great  Hoang-Ho 
to  and  across  the  mightier  Yang-tse-Kiang,  to  Hang- Chow, 


244  SANITARY    REGULATIONS    OF    PEKIN. 

its  southern  terminus.  After  spending  several  months  as  the 
guests  of  the  Empire,  and  at  its  cost  of  several  hundred 
thousand  pounds,  the  embassy  departed,  laden  with  equally 
rich  and  costly  presents  from  the  Emperor  to  the  English 
King. 

History  does  not  enlighten  us  concerning  the  possible 
financial  controversies  among  the  statesmen  of  China,  as  to 
whether  the  enormous  expense  of  this  official  entertainment 
should  be  defrayed  by  the  Imperial  exchequer  or  be  liquidated 
by  draft  on  the  Pekin  Municipal  Sinking  Fund. 

A  journal  was  kept  of  this  royal  embassy  by  its  most 
learned  and  accomplished  secretary,  and  I  doubt  if  any  modern 
work  on  China  furnishes  so  full  and  minute  information 
touching  the  personnel  of  the  Emperor  and  his  Court,  the 
laws,  customs  and  ceremonies,  institutions,  public  and  private,, 
commerce  and  industries  of  this  oldest  civilization  of  the 
world.  The  observations  of  the  official  historian  upon  the 
subject  of  the  cleanliness  of  the  imperial  capital  were  so  novel 
and  interesting,  that  I  copied  a  portion  of  one  chapter,  which 
I  now  give  for  the  consideration  of  the  learned  doctors  of  our 
own  Sanitary  Board,  struggling  as  the}r  are,  in  these  dog  days, 
with  defaulting  contractors  and  stenches  that  smell  to  heaven. 
The  record  runs  thus  : 

"  Although  Pekin  cannot  boast,  like  ancient  Rome  or 
modern  London,  of  the  conveniences  of  common  sewers  to 
carry  off  the  dirt  and  dregs  that  must  necessarily  accumu- 
late in  large  cities,  yet  it  enjoys  one  important  advantage, 
which  is  rarely  found  in  capitals  out  of  England  :  No  kind 
of  filth  or  nastiness,  creating  offensive  smells,  is  thrown  out 
into  the  streets,  a  piece  of  cleanliness  that  perhaps  ma}^  be 
attributed  rather  to  the  scarcity  and  value  of  manure  than 
to  the  exertions  of  the  police  officers.  Each  family  has  a 
large  earthen  jar,  into  which  is  carefully  collected  everything 
that  may  be  used  as  manure  ;  when  the  jar  is  full,  there  is  no 
difficulty  of  converting  the  contents  into  money,  or  exchang- 


SANITARY    REGULATIONS    OF    PEKIN.  245 

ing  it  for  vegetables.  The  same  small  boxed  carts  with  one 
wheel,  which  supply  the  city  with  vegetables,  invariably 
return  to  the  gardens  with  a  load  of  this  liquid  manure. 

"  Between  the  palace  of  Yuen-min-yuen  (the  country 
residence  of  Ta-whang-tee,  the  mighty  Emperor)  and  Pekin, 
I  have  met  many  hundreds  of  these  carts.  They  are  generally 
dragged  by  one  person  and  pushed  by  another ;  and  they 
leave  upon  the  road  an  odor  that  continues  without  inter- 
mission for  many  miles.  Thus,  though  the  city  is  cleared  of 
its  filth,  it  seldom  loses  its  fragrance.  In  fact,  a  constant 
disgusting  odor  remains  in  and  about  all  the  houses  the 
whole  day  long,  from  the  fermentation  of  the  heterogeneous 
mixture  kept  above  ground,  which  in  our  great  cities  is 
carried  off  in  drains.  To  counteract  these  offensive  smells 
they  make  use  of  a  variety  of  perfumes  and  strongly  scented 
woods  and  compositions. 

"  The  medical  gentlemen  of  China  are  not  quite  so  inge- 
nious, as  we  are  told  the  faculty  in  Madrid  were  about  the 
middle  of  the  last  century,  when  the  inhabitants  were  directed 
by  royal  proclamation  to  build  proper  places  of  retirement  in 
their  houses,  instead  of  emptying  their  nocturnal  machines  out 
of  the  windows  into  the  streets.  The  inhabitants,  it  seems, 
of  the  latter  city,  took  it  into  their  heads  to  consider  this 
order  as  a  great  affront  and  a  direct  violation  of  the  rights  of 
citizenship,  but  the  doctors  were  the  most  strenuous  opposers 
of  the  measure,  having  no  doubt  very  cogent  reasons  for 
wishing  the  continuance  of  the  practice.  They  assured  the 
inhabitants  that  if  human  excrement  was  no  longer  to  be 
suffered  to  accumulate  as  usual  in  the  streets,  where  it  might 
attract  the  putrescent  particles  floating  in  the  air,  these 
noxious  vapors  would  find  their  way  into  the  human  body, 
and  pestilential  sickness  would  be  the  inevitable  consequen- 
ces r 

Our  municipal  sanitary  board  may  possibly  gather  some 
consolation  in  noting  the  sanitary  customs  of  Pekin,  at  least 


246          SANITARY  REGULATIONS  OP  PEKIN. 

to  the  extent  that  upon  the  failure  of  a  night-soil  contractor 
they  can  fall  back  upon  the  Oriental  wheelbarrow  plan,  when 
it  will  be  further  only  necessary  to  make  a  judicious  appro- 
priation for  "  perfumes  and  strongly-scented  woods "  to 
mitigate  any  lingering  odors  along  the  streets  offensive  to  the 
inhabitants. 

Whatever  diversity  of  views  may  be  entertained  by  any 
portion  of  the  medical  faculty  in  this  country,  touching 
obscure  and  profound  questions  of  science  relating  to  public 
health,  we  take  it  for  granted  that  the  majorit}-  of  the  learned 
medical  profession,  and  of  our  own  Sanitary  Board  especially, 
do  not  hold  to  the  theory  of  the  Spanish  doctors,  above  cited, 
concerning  the  attraction  and  affinity  of  such  earthy  solids 
for  floating  putrescent  particles  and  noxious  vapors,  at  least 
to  the  extent  of  sanitary  purification  and  perfection  of  the 
air. 

Heretofore  we  have  considered  chemistry  as  the  chief 
corner-stone  and  absolute  foundation  of  all  science  pertaining 
to  the  material  universe,  and  that  so  many  men  had  become 
masters  thereof,  that  the  laws  of  chemistry  applicable  to 
common  things  were  settled,  and  well  understood  to  profes- 
sors at  least,  if  not  to  laymen.  But  since  we  have  heard 
experts  testify  that  an  ordinarily  pure  native  brook,  having 
in  its  course  injected  into  it  the  black,  obnoxious,  liquid 
dregs  and  acids  of  a  paper  mill,  its  waters,  by  chemical  analy- 
sis, were  found  to  be  purer  below  than  above  the  point  of 
alleged  pollution,  or  that  half  a  dozen  sickening  stenches 
emanating  from  soap  boiling  and  rancid  fat  rendering  estab- 
lishments and  glue  factories,  which  well-defined  stenches  being 
severally  capable  of  turning  the  human  stomach  inside  out, 
and  when  combined,  powerful  enough  to  throw  a  dray  horse, 
on  being  analyzed  and  each  particular  gas  dignified  with  a 
fanciful,  technical  name,  have  been  singly  pronounced  health- 
ful, and  collectively  declared  harmless  ;  or,  when  ice  ponds, 
bordered  by  privies  as  plentiful  as  siege  guns  around  Sedan,, 


SANITARY    REGULATIONS    OF    PEKIN.  247 

retain  their  primeval  purity,  if  not  thereby  absolutely 
enhanced  in  value  in  the  estimation  of  medical  men  and 
chemical  professors,  where  a  man  of  ordinar}T  instincts  would 
as  soon  think  that  a  raft  of  sawlogs  in  a  mill  pond  would  be 
frozen  out  as  that  the  solid  and  liquid  contents  of  a  privy 
would  be  eliminated  from  an  ice  pond  by  the  congealing  of 
its  waters,  we  cannot  but  reflect  upon  the  possibility  that  the 
medical  faculty  of  Madrid  were,  after  all,  learned,  honest  and 
correct  in  their  sanitary  theories,  and  were  justified  in  protest- 
ing against  the  arbitrary  and  oppressive  mandate  of  the  king 
of  Spain. 


248  GARRISON  —  PHILLIPS  —  ANDREW. 


GARRISON — PHILLIPS — ANDREW. 


HPHE  death  of  William  Lloyd  Garrison  awakens  a  memory 
of  more  than  forty  j'ears.  In  our  bo}Thood  we  remember 
to  have  read  of  the  event  of  1835  ;  how  in  Boston  he  was  as- 
sailed in  the  Temple  on  Tremont  street,  and  led  through  that 
once  aristocratic  avenue  by  an  exasperated  mob  of  "  gentle- 
men of  wealth  and  respectability,"  with  a  rope  around  his 
neck,  past  Park  Street  Church  and  its  ancient  cemeter3T, 
called  the  "  Granary,"  where  venerable  elms  shade  alike  the 
ashes  of  Governor  John  Winthrop  and  his  compeers  of  Colo- 
nial times  and  the  tombs  of  Hancock,  Paul  Revere,  and  War- 
ren of  Revolutionary  renown,  to  the  Common  upon  which 
faced  in  that  day  the  stately  mansions  and  elegant  residences 
of  the  elite  of  New  England — the  Otises,  Quinceys,  Appletons, 
Searses,  Everetts  and  the  Ticknors,  including  also  the  homes 
of  those  who  represented  the  majesty  and  splendor  of  the 
forum  in  the  persons  of  Webster  and  Choate. 

The  impression  upon  a  youthful  mind,  made  by  such  an  ex- 
citing scene  transpiring  in  staid  and  wealthy  Boston,  together 
with  the  almost  universal  condemnation,  by  the  Church  and 
both  the  Whig  and  Democratic  parties,  of  the  "Abolition  ag- 
itator," then  and  for  man}'  years  afterward,  was  that  one  who 
had  justly  deserved  and  received  from  indignant  gentlemen 
such  extraordinary  consideration  and  treatment,  could  be  no 
other  than  a  bold,  bad  and  dangerous  man.  Thus  prejudice 
and  error  usurp  the  vacant  mind  till  knowledge  long  in  exile 
assumes  its  throne.  It  was  not  until  1848  that  we  attained 
to  somewhat  of  a  truer  conception  and  higher  estimate  of  the 
man  whose  name  and  fame  is  revered  and  cherished  through- 


GARRISON PHILLIPS ANDREW.  249 

•out  the  civilized  world  as  the  green  sods  of  spring  are  now 
placed  on  his  grave. 

In  the  Massachusetts  Legislature  of  that  }'ear  a  special 
committee  was  appointed  to  consider  the  subject  of  abolish- 
ing the  death  penalty  which  had  been  numerously  petitioned 
for.  The  chairman  of  that  committee  was  Francis  W.  Bird,  a 
thoughtful,  scholarly  gentleman  of  business,  of  attractive  so- 
cial qualities,  and  who  subsequently  during  the  war  was  the 
founder  of  the  celebrated  "  Bird  Club,"  where  the  best  minds 
•of  New  England  were  wont  to  meet,  and  in  which  were  con- 
ceived and  matured  and  from  which  emanated  many  of  the 
most  important  measures  for  the  conduct  and  prosecution  of 
the  war,  embodied  in  the  laws  of  Congress  and  enforced  b}r  the 
administration  of  President  Lincoln. 

The  writer  was  the  youngest  member  of  the  committee,  as 
also  of  the  Legislature.  As  it  was  the  custom  to  give  the 
friends  and  opponents  of  a  measure  an  opportunity  to  be 
heard  through  their  advocate,  the  occasion  was  thus  happily 
presented  for  acquiring  a  knowledge  of  the  three  celebrated 
characters  whose  names  are  placed  at  the  head  of  this  paper. 

John  A.  Andrew,  then  a  brilliant  young  advocate  of  the 
Boston  bar,  afterward  the  renowned  War  Governor  of  the 
State,  learned  alike  in  the  history  of  legislation  and  the  juris- 
prudence of  living  and  dead  nations,  commented  upon  the 
statutes  of  Moses  and  the  laws  and  ordinances  of  the  Hebrew 
Commonwealth ;  compared  the  Septuagint  and  Vulgate  with 
the  version  of  King  James,  touching  the  ancient  law  of  "An 
eye  for  an  eye  and  a  tooth  for  a  tooth,"  and  "Whoso  sheddeth 
man's  blood,  by  man  shall  his  blood  be  shed,"  with  the  same 
happy  facility  that  he  would  have  considered  and  elucidated 
modern  statutes.  He  maintained  the  proposition  that  the 
"Thus  saith  the  Lord "  of  the  Hebrew  scriptures  was  but  the 
oriental  style  of  enactment  peculiar  to  a  primitive  people,  who 
believed  Governments  to  be  an  emanation  from  the  Jehovah 
of  the  Hebrews,  and  that  the  expression  was  simply  equiva- 


250  GARRISON  —  PHILLIPS  —  ANDREW. 

lent  to  the  "  Be  it  enacted  "  of  modern  legislation.  Finally  he 
affirmed  his  conviction  that  those  ancient  and  venerable  stat- 
utes were  not  only  obsolete,  but  were  in  fact  repealed  in  the 
new  dispensation  of  the  Man  of  Calvary.  His  address  is  re- 
called after  the  lapse  of  thirty  years  as  that  of  a  richly  culti- 
vated mind,  and  his  manner  as  modest,  genial  and  attractive. 
Time  and  occasion  developed  the  man  into  the  great  War 
Governor  of  Massachusetts,  the  cotemporary  of  his  renowned 
compeers  in  like  position,  Buckingham,  Curtin,  Tod,  Brough 
and  Morton. 

Then  stepped  forth  from  the  large  audience  in  the  Hall  of 
the  House  of  Representatives,  where  I  had  not  before 
observed  him,  Wendell  Phillips,  and  pleasantly  remarked 
that  he  had  a  few  considerations  to  submit,  if  it  was  the 
pleasure  of  the  committee  to  listen  further  after  the  address 
of  his  young  friend.  It  had  seemed  as  though  there  could 
be  but  little  more,  if  an}Tthing,  said  after  the  first  speaker,  but 
Mr.  Phillips  occupied  at  least  an  hour,  the  shortest  and  most 
delightful  hour  of  my  life.  He  had  been  famous  as  the  best 
public  speaker  of  New  England  from  1836,  when  in  his 
comparative  youth  he  astonished  and  bewildered  the  Boston 
of  nearly  fifty  years  ago,  alike  by  his  magnificent  utterances 
and  his  awful  and  unprecedented  audacity  in  replying  in 
Faneuil  Hall  to  a  speech  of  Boston's  political  autocrat  and 
Massachusetts'  great  Attorney  General,  Austin,  on  some 
early  and  incipient  question  touching  slavery.  His  was  not 
like  a  speech,  or  a  sermon,  nor  yet  after  the  manner  and  style 
of  the  forensic  orator ;  it  was  rather  conversation,  talk — 
delightful,  beautiful,  fascinating,  convincing.  Hardly  a 
gesture,  even  to  the  movement  of  a  finger,  but  standing 
square  on  his  feet  and  opening  his  lips,  all  of  dignity  of 
person,  or  wealth  of  mind  that  God  has  ever  bestowed  upon 
man,  was  made  manifest  in  his  words  and  presence.  Wendell 
Phillips  in  person  and  manners  was  then  and  ever  since  has 
been  my  beau  ideal  of  the  true  English  lord.  Born  to  wealth, 


GARRISON  —  PHILLIPS ANDREW.  251 

ancient  family  and  high  social  position,  he  is  nevertheless  as 
innocent  of  sham  aristocracy  as  the  humblest  citizen,  and  is 
one  of  the  most  approachable,  friendly  and  lovable  of  men. 
We  have  sought  much  to  find  a  real  live  native-born  aristo- 
crat, but  have  never  yet  succeeded.  He  has  been  pointed 
out  to  us  man}7  times  in  many  cities.  We  have  interviewed 
him  and  studied  him  with  the  philosophical  interest  of  a 
Darwin,  but  generally,  when  we  came  to  know  him  person- 
ally, the  aristocrat  had  retired  like  the  gods  of  a  primitive 
people  before  the  light  of  civilization.  We  have  sought  the- 
man  in  prejudice,  and  have  retired  from  his  presence  with 
admiration  for  his  qualities  of  mind  and  heart.  The  true 
American  aristocrat,  so-called,  is  like  the  true  English  lord  ,- 
the  chances  are  thej^  both  have  brains,  they  may  have  great 
wealth  ;  if  they  have  the  first,  the  second  don't  spoil  them  ; 
but  the  man  of  wealth  without  sense,  assuming  above  his- 
fellow  men,  is  but  a  dromedary  in  the  desert,  loaded  with 
treasure. 

As  Wendell  Phillips  never  had  a  precursor,  so  his  mantle 
will  fall  upon  the  shoulders  of  no  successor.  He  is  the  first 
and  last  of  his  line.  His  place  in  his  country's  history 
is  unique.  With  the  most  brilliant  mental  endowmentsr 
graced  by  the  highest  culture,  still  his  marble  bust  will  fill 
no  niche  in  the  temple  beside  Webster,  Choate  and  Benjamin 
R.  Curtiss  as  a  great  lawyer ;  neither  will  he  be  embalmed  in 
history  as  an  American  statesman,  though  possessed  of  all 
the  qualities  which  that  term  implies  ;  yet  his  name  will  be 
illustrious  in  the  ages  to  come  as  orator,  philanthropist,  and' 
critic  of  statesmen. 

As  the  first  shall  be  last  and  the  last  first,  so  G-arrison  was 
the  last  to  address  the  committee.  His  name  had  been  so 
long  a  byword  of  contempt  in  two  great  political  parties,  and 
as  that  of  a  demon  in  churches  of  New  England,  that  I  had 
supposed  him  a  very  old  man,  possibly  a  cotemporary  of 
Gibbon,  if  not  of  Voltaire,  and  I  could  hardly  credit  my  senses- 


252  GARRISON PHILLIPS ANDREW. 

when  I  was  assured  he  was  no  other  than  the  terrible  icono- 
clast who  broke  the  idols  of  slavery  in  political  and  ecclesias- 
tical temples,  and  sacrificed  himself,  with  a  few  grim  and 
restless  followers,  upon  the  black  and  gloomy  altar  of  the 
despised  Moloch  of  Abolition. 

A  slight  and  delicately  constructed  person,  of  probably  not 
more  than  forty-five  years  of  age,  plainly  and  neatly  clad  in 
Iblack,  of  scholarly  and  rather  clerical  aspect,  with  a  smooth, 
shapely  bald  head,  such  as  artists  of  the  Middle  Ages  repre- 
sented on  canvas  as  the  ideal  Apostle  Paul  ;  a  countenance 
earnest  but  pleasant,  and  an  eye  that  beamed  through  glisten- 
ing gold  spectacles  and  rested  upon  one  with  something  of 
that  sweetness  of  expression  that  a  loving  parent  would 
bestow  upon  a  cherished  daughter  or  manly  son.  His  manner 
was  gentleness  itself — calm,  unruffled,  dispassionate.  Logical, 
argumentative  and  earnest,  he  bandied  no  epithets,  seemed 
never  to  notice  insults,  sneers,  missiles,  or  stale  eggs,  hurled 
at  him  by  "gentlemen"  or  ruffians  in  the  crowd  on  other 
occasions,  but  accepted  such  with  a  smile,  occasionally  return- 
ing a  left-handed  compliment  to  his  disturbers  for  using  the 
only  arguments  which  could  be  made  in  their  cause.  His 
power  lay  in  the  clearness  of  his  statements,  simplicity  of  his 
style  in  the  construction  of  his  utterances,  sincerity  and 
earnestness  of  his  convictions  and  the  singleness  of  his 
purpose  ;  whatever  his  theme,  his  read}'  command  of  the 
most  appropriate  expressions  and  their  directness  of  applica- 
tion, and  the  force  with  which  he  sent  home  his  logical 
propositions,  winged  no  less  with  irony  and  sarcasm  than 
beauty  of  illustration.  Words  from  his  lips  were  as  unerring 
as  shots  from  a  Berdan  rifle.  In  all  his  severest  utterances, 
however,  he  seemed  in  his  personal  action  and  manner,  no 
less  than  mentally,  without  passion.  He  had  the  serenity  of 
aspect  under  all  circumstances  of  one  conscious  of  the  right 
for  which  even  a  mob  of  angry  men  had  no  terrors.  Many 
men  have  changed  their  opinions  touching  the  personality 


GARRISON  —  PHILLIPS  —  ANDREW.  253 

of  Garrison  on  seeing  him  and  hearing  him.  His  life  and 
labors  were  but  a  single  link  in  the  chain  of  historical  events 
which  resulted  in  emancipation,  but  his  was  the  first  and 
most  important  link  in  a  chain  which  was  thirty  j^ears  in 
construction,  and  which,  happily,  he  lived  to  see  Lincoln  weld 
the  last  in  the  renowned  Proclamation. 

The  mutual  regard  and  friendly  relations  which  existed 
between  Garrison  and  Phillips  have  ever  been  a  subject  of 
pleasant  comment  by  their  admirers,  confirmed  to  the  public 
mind  doubtless  by  that  happy  prophecy  of  Phillips,  when  he 
said  of  Garrison  that  while  his  name  would  be  illustrious  in 
history  his  statue  would  never  be  erected,  for  the  sculptor 
could  not  find  marble  white  enough  ! 

One  of  the  most  pleasant  sallies  of  wit  of  which,  as  reform- 
ers, Garrison  and  Phillips  were  the  subjects  in  the  earty  days, 
was  that  of  a  lady  of  Boston  whose  guests  they  both  were. 
She  said  they  were  dissatisfied  not  only  with  institutions  and 
society  as  they  existed,  but  also  with  man  as  created,  so 
they  had  essayed  a  new  creation,  and  sought  to  paraphrase 
the  ancient  record  so  that  their  fiat  would  run  thus  :  "  And 
Garrison  said  to  Phillips,  Go  to  now,  let  us  make  man  anew 
in  our  image,  after  our  likeness.  So  Garrison  and  Phillips 
moulded  a  few  in  their  image,  in  the  image  of  Garrison  and 
Phillips  moulded  they  them  ;  male  and  female  moulded  they 
them  ;  and  Garrison  and  Phillips  looked  upon  them  and  saw 
that  they  were  good  ;  better  than  the  original ;  and  it  was 
so." 

Of  the  famous  trio  who  so  unexpectedly  came  to  our 
youthful  personal  knowledge,  Wendell  Phillips  alone  remains. 
Three  decades  of  intellectual  conflict  have  increased  their 
fame  among  men.  The  early  memory  of  them  remains  to  us 
a  pleasure.  When  the  last  shall  go,  an  electric  light  will 
have  been  extinguished.  The  Pharos  will  no  longer  light 
the  Midland  Sea. 


254  AGRIPPINA    AND    LUCRETIA  — 


AGRIPPINA  AND  LUCRETIA— A  PARALLEL. 


TN  the  reign  of  Tiberius,  Germanicus  ruled  in  Asia  and 
^  commanded  the  Imperial  Legions.  In  the  midst  of  his 
career,  popular  in  his  administration  and  beloved  for  his 
private  virtues,  he  was  assassinated  by  poison,  administered 
by  the  hands  of  a  woman,  instigated  thereto  by  Piso,  a  mili- 
tary rival,  who  at  the  same  time  approached  the  Asiatic 
•capital,  Antioch,  with  an  insurgent  army  before  Germanicus 
was  .yet  dead.  Choate,  in  his  felicitous  rendering  of  the 
Latin  of  Tacitus,  tells  the  story  of  a  tragedy  which  now,  after 
the  lapse  of  nearly  two  thousand  years,  history  has  repeated, 
forming  in  all  essential  incidents  a  most  remarkable  parallel. 
Germanicus,  upon  his  martyr-bed,  said  :  "  If  my  threshold 
is  to  be  besieged,  if  my  blood  is  to  be  poured  out  under  the 
•eye  of  my  enemies,  what  will  befall  my  most  wretched  wife  ? 
what  my  children,  yet  infants  ?  Piso  thinks  poison  too  slow  !" 
Germanicus  at  first,  for  a  brief  space,  was  elevated  to  the 
hope  of  recovery,  but  soon  perceived  that  his  end  was 
approaching ;  and  with  wearied  frame  then  addressed  the 
friends  who  stood  around  him  :  "  If  I  were  yielding  to  a 
decree  of  nature,  I  might  justly  grieve  for  the  ordination 
even  of  the  gods  who  snatch  me  away  from  parents,  children, 
country,  by  a  premature  departure  in  my  season  of  youth. 
But  now,  intercepted  violently  and  suddenly  by  the  crime  of 
Piso  and  Plancina,  I  leave  my  last  prayers  in  your  hearts. 
Tell  my  father  and  my  brother  by  what  afflictions  torn 
asunder,  by  what  treachery  circumvented,  I  close  my  most 
unhappy  life,  and  by  the  most  inglorious  death.  If  there  are 
those  in  whom  my  earlier  hopes  my  kindred  blood  awakened 


A    PARALLEL.  255 

an  interest ;  if  there  are  any  in  whom,  while  living,  I  moved 
an  emotion  of  envy,  they  will  weep  that  he,  once  shining  the 
survivor  of  so  many  wars,  has  fallen  by  the  fraud  of  woman. 
There  will  be  allowed  you  opportunity  of  preferring  a  com- 
plaint to  the  Senate,  and  of  invoking  the  laws.  It  is  not  the 
chief  office  of  friendship  to  stand  looking  after  the  departed 
with  listless  sorrow,  but  to  remember  his  wishes  and  to 
perform  his  injunctions.  Even  strangers  will  weep  for 
Germanicus.  You  will  vindicate  him,  if  it  were  himself 
rather  than  his  conspicuous  fortune,  which  you  loved  and 
cherished.  Show  the  people  of  Rome  the  granddaughter  of 
Augustus,  my  wife ;  enumerate  m}-  six  children.  Sympath}* 
will  enlist  itself  with  the  accusers  ;  and  they  who  may  only 
pretend  that  their  crimes  were  commanded  by  a  higher  will 
shall  not  be  believed,  or  shall  not  be  held  guiltless."  Then 
turning  to  his  wife  he  entreated  her  by  his  memory,  by  their 
•common  children,  to  suppress  all  vehemence  of  resentment, 
to  resign  her  spirit  to  her  cruel  fortune  when  she  should 
return  to  the  city,  to  avoid  by  emulation  of  power  exasper- 
ating those  above  her  in  the  State.  Within  a  brief  space 
afterward  he  died,  to  the  profound  sorrow  of  the  province 
and  of  the  countries  round  it.  Foreign  nations  and  kings 
mourned  for  him.  Such  had  been  his  courtesy  to  his  subjects 
of  the  province  ;  such  his  clememry  toward  his  enemies  ;  such 
reverence  did  his  countenance  and  speech  alike  conciliate, 
that  while  he  preserved  and  displayed  the  grandeur  and 
•dignity  of  the  highest  estate,  he  escaped  envy  and  the 
accusation  of  arrogance. 

His  funeral  was  celebrated  by  praises  and  by  the  memory 
and  rehearsal  of  his  virtues.  Some  there  were  who  drew  a 
parallel  between  him  in  respect  of  form  and  of  age,  the  kind 
of  death,  the  general  region  in  which  he  died,  and  the  traits 
and  fortune  of  Alexander  the  Great.  Each  of  them,  it  was 
called  to  mind,  was  of  dignified  and  graceful  person,  and 
•each,  not  much  past  the  thirtieth  year  of  life,  died  by  treach- 


256  AGRIPPINA    AND    LUCRETIA  — 

ery  of  his  countrymen  in  foreign  lands.  But  Germanicus 
was  gentle  toward  his  friends,  temperate  in  his  pleasures,  the 
husband  of  one  wife,  the  father  of  legitimate  children  only. 
Nor  was  he,  they  urged,  less  a  warrior,  although  characterized 
by  less  rashness.  His  body,  before  it  was  burned,  was 
exposed  in  the  forum  of  Antioch,  which  was  the  place 
assigned  for  funeral  ceremonies.  Agrippina,  although  faint 
from  sorrow  and  sickness,  yet  unable  to  endure  delay, 
ascended  the  fleet  with  the  ashes  of  Germanicus  with  her 
children,  attended  by  universal  commiseration  that  a  woman, 
the  highest  in  nobility,  but  yesterday  the  wife  of  a  most 
illustrious  marriage,  accustomed  to  be  seen,  surrounded, 
thronged,  admired  and  congratulated,  should  now  be  bearing 
away  the  ashes  of  the  dead  in  her  bosom  ;  anxious  for  herself; 
her  exposure  to  fortune  multiplied  and  heightened  by  the  sad 
possession  of  so  many  children. 

Undelayed  by  a  winter's  sea,  Agrippina  pursues  her 
voyage,  and  is  borne  to  the  island  of  Corcyra,  opposite  to  the 
Calabrian  shore.  There,  violent  by  grief,  and  untaught  and 
unknowing  how  to  endure,  she  passed  a  few  duA^s  in  a  struggle 
to  compose  herself.  Meantime  the  news  of  her  approach 
having  preceded  her,  the  more  intimate  of  the  friends  of 
Germanicus  and  the  greater  number  of  those  who  had  borne 
military  office  under  him,  and  crowds  of  persons  unknown, 
rushed  to  Brundusium,  the  nearest  port  and  the  safest  harbor 
to  which  she  might  come.  And  now  that  the  fleet  is  first 
dimly  discerned  far  at  sea,  the  harbor,  and  all  the  adjacent 
shore  nearest  the  water,  and  not  these  alone,  but  walls  and 
roofs  of  houses,  even  the  remotest,  from  which  a  glimpse 
could  be  gained,  are  thronged  by  a  sorrowing  multitude. 
They  inquire  often,  one  of  another,  whether  they  should 
receive  her,  as  she  descends  from  her  ship,  with  silence,  or 
with  uttered  expressions  of  feeling.  Nor  had  they  determined 
which  would  most  befit  the  time,  when  the  fleet  slowly 
entered  the  port,  not  gliding  to  that  joyful  stroke  of  the  oar- 


A    PARALLEL.  257 

with  which  the  sailor,  his  voyage  ending,  comes  to  land,  but 
with  the  manner  in  all  things  and  with  the  aspects  of  mourn- 
ing. And  when  Agrippina  with  her  two  children,  bearing 
the  urn  of  the  dead,  had  descended  from  the  ship  and  fixed 
her  eyes  sadly  on  the  ground,  one  general  equal  sob  burst 
forth  from  all  that  vast  multitude,  nor  could  you  distinguish 
by  the  degree  or  the  form  of  sorrow,  strangers  from  near 
friends,  nor  man  from  woman  ;  except  that  those  in  the  train 
of  Agrippina,  exhausted  by  long-indulgent  grief,  were  less 
passionate  and  vehement  than  those  more  recent  in  their 
expression  of  it  who  thus  came  forth  to  meet  them. 

The  Emperor  had  sent  two  Pretorian  cohorts  to  attend  the 
arrival  and  approach  of  Agrippina,  and  had  also  issued  a 
decree  that  the  Apulians,  the  Campanians,  and  the  magis- 
trates of  Calabria  should  perform  the  last  offices  to  the 
memory  of  his  son.  The  ashes,  therefore,  were  borne  forward 
•on  the  shoulders  of  tribunes  and  centurions  ;  before  them 
moved  along  standards  un decorated,  and  fasces  inverted  ;  and 
as  the  procession  passed  through  successive  colonies,  the 
people  clad  in  black,  and  the  Equites  in  their  robes  of  State, 
as  the  means  of  the  region  might  supply,  burned  garments, 
odors,  and  such  things  else  as  used  to  honor  the  burial  of  the 
dead.  Even  they,  whose  cities  the  procession  did  not  pass 
through,  came  out  to  meet  it,  and  offering  sacrifices,  and 
erecting  altars  to  the  gods  of  the  dead,  attested  their  sorrow 
by  tears  and  united  wailing.  Drusus  had  advanced  as  far 
as  Terracina  with  his  brother  Claudius,  and  with  those 
children  of  Germanicus  who  had  remained  at  Rome.  The 
Consuls  Marcus  Valerius  and  Caius  Aurelius,  the  Senate  and 
the  great  body  of  the  people  thronged  the  way ;  without 
order  of  procession  or  arrangement,  each  man  by  himself 
weeping  unrestrained — the  sorrow  of  the  heart,  not  the  service 
of  adulation.  It  does  not  appear  that  the  mother  of  Gernian- 
icus  performed  any  conspicuous  part  in  the  service  of  the 
day,  while  the  names  of  many  other  kinsmen  of  the  deceased 
17 


258  AGRIPPINA    AND    LUCRETIA  — 

are  recorded.  Whether  she  was  prevented  by  ill  health,  or,, 
overdone  by  grief,  could  not  endure  to  look  upon  that  spec- 
tacle of  so  great  calamity,  we  may  not  know. 

On  the  day  on  which  the  remains  were  borne  to  the  tomb 
of  Augustus,  there  reigned  at  times  a  desolate  silence,  and  at 
times  it  was  disturbed  by  sounds  of  sorrow.  The  streets 
were  filled  ;  funeral  torches  gleamed  in  Campus  Martins  ; 
and  there  were  soldiers  in  arms ;  there  were  magistrates 
without  the  badges  of  office  ;  the  people  by  tribes  ;  and  from 
all  lips  there  burst  forth  the  frequent  cry  so  unrestrained 
and  loud,  that  they  might  seem  to  have  forgotten  that  they 
had  a  master,  "The  Republic  is  fallen — there  is  no  more 
hope."  Nothing,  however,  could  surpass  the  enthusiastic 
sentiments  which  appeared  kindled  toward  Agrippina.  All 
saluted  her  as  the  grace  of  the  State  ;  the  one  in  whose  veins 
alone  ran  the  blood  of  Augustus  ;  the  sole  surviving  speci- 
men of  the  old,  noble,  Roman  matronage  ;  and  lifting  their 
eyes  toward  heaven,  they  prayed  that  her  children  might  be 
happy,  and  might  be  spared  the  malice  of  their  enemies.  So 
general  and  overwhelming  was  the  public  grief,  that  the 
Emperor  sought  to  soothe  the  sorrows  and  renew  the  hopes 
of  the  people  of  Rome  by  putting  forth  an  admonitory  edict. 
"Many  illustrious  Romans,"  it  bore,  "had  died  for  the 
Republic  ;  but  the  funeral  of  no  one  had  been  solemnized  by 
so  passionate  a  public  sorrow.  This  was  creditable  to  all,  if  it 
were  submitted  to  some  degree  of  moderation,  for  that  excess 
of  sorrow  which  might  become  an  humble  house  or  an  incon- 
siderable city,  were  unsuitable  to  princes  and  an  imperial 
people.  For  recent  affliction,  sorrow,  and  the  solaces  of  grief 
indulged,  were  fit ;  but  now,  at  length,  the  mind  ought  to  be 
brought  back  to  firmness  again  ;  as  once  Julius,  bereaved  of 
his  only  daughter ;  as  Augustus,  his  grandsons  torn  from 
him,  suppressed  all  signs  of  gloom.  Nor  is  there  need  of 
remembering  earlier  examples  ;  how  often,  with  constancy, 
has  the  Roman  people  borne  the  slaughter  of  armies  ;  the 


A    PARALLEL.  259 

death  of  generals.  Noble  families,  from  their  foundations, 
overthrown  and  perished.  Great  men  die.  The  republic  is 
eternal." 

A  few  thousand  years  hence,  when  the  English  language 
shall  be  dead,  and  human  lips  no  more  utter  its  accents, 
scholars  will  render  the  history  of  some  Tacitus  of  the  Nine- 
teenth Century  into  a  possibly  universal  language,  evolved 
out  of  the  tongue  of  an  island  tribe  in  some  yet  untraversed 
ocean,  which  shall  tell  the  story  of  the  return  to  the  city  of 
the  American  Lucretia,  weeping  over  the  casket  holding  the 
remains  of  her  husband,  greater  in  office  and  more  exalted 
in  the  State  than  the  husband  of  Agrippina,  and  lamented  by 
more  nations  and  peoples  than  Germanicus  knew.  How  the 
Queen  of  England  and  Empress  of  India  laid  her  chaplet  of 
flowers  upon  his  bier,  and  spoke  words  of  consolation  to  the 
widow's  heart  as  woman  alone  can  speak  to  woman.  How 
sovereigns  of  Europe  expressed  by  electric  messengers  their 
profoundest  sentiments  of  sympathy  and  sorrow.  How 
prayers  were  offered  in  the  mosques  of  the  Sultan.  How 
they  wept  at  the  doors  of  Arab  tents  upon  the  sultry  sands 
of  Arabia,  as  they  wept  for  him  who  died  at  Azan.  How 
cities  of  the  Nile  contributed  sympathetic  balm  of  lotus 
flowers.  How  on  the  appointed  day  for  universal  prayer  the 
people  reverently  bowed  in  temple,  sj^nagogue  and  church, 
from  China  and  Japan  ;  from  the  Orient  to  the  Occident, 
from  the  Arctic  Circle  to  the  Republics  beyond  the  Equator. 

And  above  all,  how  Ministers  of  State,  Judges  of  Courts, 
Senators  and  Representatives  in  Congress,  Generals  of  the 
Army  and  Admirals  of  the  Navy,  Governors  of  States  and 
Statesmen  of  the  Republic,  guarded  the  honored  dead  to  final 
rest  in  the  beautiful  necropolis  on  the  shores  of  an  inland 
sea.  How,  when  the  faithful  wife,  weary  and  heavily  veiled, 
descended  from  the  sable  car  of  the  long  funeral  train  and 
delivered  her  precious  burden  to  official  and  friendly  hands 
in  the  Northern  Metropolis,  thousands  of  the  people  stood  in 


260  AGRIPPINA   AND    LUCRETIA  —  A   PARALLEL. 

oppressive  silence,  and  white-haired  men  and  women  mingled 
their  tears  with  the  maiden  and  the  child,  and  offered  their 
silent  prayers  for  the  grief-stricken  widow  and  her  children, 
and  for  the  mother  of  the  distinguished  dead — for  the  vener- 
able mother  of  our  Germanicus  was  within  the  gates  of  the 
city.  How  the  great  dead  was  mourned  in  our  Campus 
Martius  ;  how  his  great  deeds  and  noble  virtues  were  re- 
counted and  the  choicest  expressions  of  his  public  utterances 
were  repeated  ;  and  finally  how,  when  all  was  ended,  the 
people  strived  for  something  of  solace  and  consolation  in  his 
own  most  appropriate  and  assuring  words — "God  reigns,  and 
the  Government  at  Washington  still  lives." 


MUSIC    AND    ITS    INFLUENCES.  261 


MUSIC  AND  ITS  INFLUENCES.' 


\\  7HAT  the  wonderful  electric  light  is  to  the  eye,  music  is 
to  the  soul  of  man.  It  is  an  element  in  nature  no  less 
than  light,  air,  electricity  and  the  warmth  of  the  sun.  It  is 
manifest  in  the  thunder,  in  the  sighing  of  the  winds  in  the 
forests,  the  surge  of  the  ocean  dashing  upon  its  rocky  shore, 
the  cry  of  the  beasts  of  the  field  and  the  birds  of  the  air  ;  and 
every  sound  of  the  human  voice,  whether  of  pleasure  or  pain, 
that  is  wafted  upon  the  waves  of  the  air,  and  touching  the 
ear,  is  thus  communicated  to  the  human  soul,  inspiring  or 
depressing  the  spirit  of  man.  Its  human  manifestation  com- 
menced with  the  moaning  of  the  first  infant  in  the  cradle,  sup- 
plemented by  the  twitter  of  the  first  bird  perched  upon  the 
tree  in  the  garden  of  the  primeval  world,  the  first  lamb  that 
bleated  upon  the  slopes  of  the  mountains  in  Central  Asia,  and 
the  first  fierce  battle-cry  of  rude  nomadic  tribes  contending  for 
ground  on  which  to  pitch  their  tents  or  pasturage  for  their 
flocks. 

Music,  as  a  practised  art,  is  as  old  as  humanity  itself.  It  is 
pre-historic,  and  its  beginnings  are  lost  in  the  myths  and 
mysteries  of  the  origin  and  history  of  the  human  race,  and 
will  never  be  known  until  the  beginnings  of  races,  tribes  and 
nations  shall  have  been  discovered  and  made  known  by  the 
laborious  and  searching  ethnologist.  No  wild  tribe  has  yet 
been  found  on  the  face  of  the  globe  that  does  not  possess 
something  of  music  in  its  nature,  and  practices  it  either  in 

*  Written  for  the  Cleveland  Educational  Bureau. 


262  MUSIC    AND    ITS    INFLUENCES. 

voice  or  by  instrument,  however  rude,  discordant,  or  even 
offensive  it  may  be  to  cultivated  ears. 

The  legends  of  a  people  often  contain  a  germ  of  true  his- 
tory. The  most  ancient  legend  touching  the  history  of  music 
is  more  than  five  thousand  years  old,  and  has  come  down  to 
us  from  China.  It  relates  that  at  that  early  period  the  Chi- 
nese musical  scale  consisted  of  five  primal  tones  only.  These 
were  conceived  to  be  symbolical  of  the  five  elements  of  na- 
ture— earth,  metal,  wood,  fire  and  water.  Early  respect  and 
reverence  for  imperial  rule  led  the  court  musicians  to  dignify 
their  profession  by  a  national  svmbo'ization  representative  of 
the  Emperor,  the  minister,  the  people,  affairs  of  State,  the 
body  politic.  All  this,  of  course,  was  fancy  and  complimen- 
tary, but  it  had  the  happy  result  of  securing  government  influ- 
ence in  advancing  the  art.  In  process  of  time,  as  the  art 
developed,  new  tones  were  conceived  and  added  by  different 
authors,  without  reference  to  former  standard  musical  rules, 
•whereby  confusion  arose  in  musical  matters  at  the  Imperial 
€ourt,  and  the  Emperor  took  the  subject  in  hand  with  a 
determination  to  establish  music  on  a  basis  of  sound  princi- 
ples and  fixed  laws.  To  that  end,  the  Emperor  Hoang-Ti 
ordered  Ling-Lun,  the  greatest  musician  of  his  time,  to  bring 
order  out  of  confusion  and  establish  music  on  a  new  and  per- 
manent foundation.  So  Ling-Lun,  like  some  modern  philoso- 
phers and  original  scientific  investigators,  resorted  to  original 
sources  to  ascertain  the  number  of  musical  notes  and  the  key- 
note of  nature.  He  left  the  capital  and  the  abodes  of  men, 
and  sought  the  highest  mountain  in  Central  Asia,  where  the 
great  Hoang-Ho  takes  its  rise.  While  ascending  a  lofty  peak, 
he  suddenly  felt  his  feet  refusing  their  support.  He  sat  down 
and  soon  fell  into  a  deep  reverie.  There  appeared  to  him 
Pung-Hoang,  the  wonderful  double-bird,  which  appears  to 
man  only  on  rare  occasions,  and  for  the  especial  purpose  of 
benefiting  mankind  in  general.  The  male  Fung  sang  six 
tones,  and  the  female  Hoang  six  others,  and  the  deepest  tone 


MUSIC    AND    ITS    INFLUENCES..  263 

produced  by  Fung  was  Kung,  the  great  tone — earth  and  em- 
peror in  the  symbolized  scale.  Now  the  waters  of  the 
Hoang-Ho,  rushing  by,  likewise  intoned  the  Kung,  and  Ling- 
Lun's  own  voice,  when  speaking,  was  in  unison  with  it.  So 
Ling-Lun  recognized  it  as  the  root-tone,  whence  all  others 
had  sprung.  He  then  returned  to  the  capital,  and  elab- 
orated his  new  system.  To  the  great  fundamental  tone, 
the  generator  of  all  others,  Kung,  were  added  other  tones 
called  helpers  and  supporters,  for  by  their  aid  the  circle  of  the 
fifths  and  fourths  was  effected.  The  double  bird  had  sung 
twelve  notes.  These  formed  the  twelve  semitones  of  the 
octave.  Those  intoned  by  Fung  were  considered  perfect, 
while  the  others  were  imperfect.  This  was  in  accordance 
with  Chinese  philosophy,  which  divided  things  into  perfect 
and  imperfect,  and  held  that  each  thing  perfect  had  a  counter- 
part in  something  imperfect ;  like  the  relation  in  which  man 
stood  to  woman,  heaven  to  earth,  the  sun  to  the  moon.  The 
twelve  semitones  were  also  S3Tmbolical  of  the  twelve  moons  of 
the  year.  Taking  their  premises,  that  each  mode  was  a  mani- 
festation of  some  principle,  as  materialized  in  the  elements  of 
the  State,  so  also  as  materialized  in  an  element  in  nature,  the 
Chinese  had  a  complete  and  logical  theory  explaining  the 
power  of  music  over  the  emotions.  They  believed  that  each 
tone  and  each  mode  impressed  itself,  according  to  its  charac- 
ter, directly  on  the  mind,  without  the  intervention  of  thought  ; 
that  music  acted  in  a  primary  manner,  acted  as  much  upon 
the  person  ignorant  of  its  deep  signification  as  upon  the  phi- 
losopher. The  ancient  Chinese,  moreover,  held  music  in  high 
estimation  in  consequence  of  their  theory.  Whatever  may 
have  been  the  state  of  musical  knowledge  and  art  in  China  in 
the  earlier  times,  as  compared  with  that  of  Western  nations 
to-day,  or  in  the  intervening  ages,  its  influence  upon  Emperor 
and  people  had  been  such,  that  it  is  recorded  that  one  of  the 
sayings  of  Confucius,  two  thousand  years  later,  was:  "De- 
sire ye  to  know  whether  a  land  is  well  governed,  and  its  peo- 


264  MUSIC    AND    ITS    INFLUENCES. 

pie  have  good  morals  ?  Hear  its  music."  Another  philoso- 
pher of  the  empire  asserts,  that  whoever  understands  music 
well,  is  capable  of  governing.  Fo-Hi  himself  was  the  inventor 
of  an  instrument,  the  Kin.  A  number  of  emperors  were 
skilled  musicians  and  composers ;  several  are  portrayed  as 
performing  on  the  same  instrument. 

The  less  poetic  and  more  practical,  if  not  more  scientific 
Egyptians  symbolized  music  with  the  whole  cosmos,  the  uni- 
verse, or  planetary  system  as  understood  by  them  in  the 
earlier  ages  of  that  country.  They  compared  the  seven  tones 
of  the  diatonic  scale  to  the  seven  planets.  This  was  at  least 
a  sublime  idea.  It  pervaded  all  that  subsequent  time  which 
to  us  is  known  as  historical  antiquity  of  Eg}*pt,  also  the  mid- 
dle ages,  and  there  are  even  traces  of  it  in  recent  times — the 
idea  of  the  harmony  of  the  spheres.  Music  was  no  longer,  as 
in  the  remoter  East,  merely  a  manifestation  of  terrestrial 
forces,  symbolical  of  terrestrial  governments  ;  it  came  to  be 
considered  a  manifestation  of  the  celestial,  of  spirit  which 
regulates  the  universe.  Harmony  was  no  longer  restricted  to- 
the  earth  ;  it  came  to  be  the  ruling  principle  of  nature.  The 
gods  were  the  means  through  which  the  knowledge  of  music 
was  imparted  to  man.  Osiris  invented  the  flute  ;  Isis,  the 
sacred  songs.  The  seven  tones  of  the  Egyptian  scale  were 
deemed  manifestations  of  the  principle  which  produced  the 
seven  planets,  endowed  by  the  Greater  with  motion,  and 
which  were  then  supposed  to  revolve  around  the  stationary 
earth — Mercury,  Venus,  Mars,  Jupiter,  Saturn,  the  Sun  and 
Moon.  Herschel  and  Neptune  were  then  unknown.  Being 
something  of  astronomical  mathematicians,  they  conceived 
the  ratio  between  the  lowest  tone  and  the  highest  to  be  the 
same  as  between  Saturn,  the  most  distant  known  planet,  and 
the  Moon,  the  nearest.  These  ideas  are  all  set  forth  and 
illustrated  in  ancient  Egyptian  books,  two  of  which,  devoted 
to  music  alone,  have  come  down  to  us.  They  ascribed  path- 
ological virtues  to  music,  designating  it  as  physic  for  the  soul. 


MUSIC    AND    ITS    INFLUENCES.  265 

It  is  possible  that  the  old  Egyptians  had  even  a  more  sub- 
lime conception  of  music  in  its  relation  to  the  celestial  orbs 
than  we  are  wont  to  concede  to  them,  as  involved  in  the  ex- 
pression, "harmony  of  the  spheres."  Egypt  and  Chaldea  pos- 
sessed the  primeval  knowledge  of  astronomy — the  order  and 
movement  not  only  of  the  planets  of  the  solar  system,  but 
also  of  the  myriad  stars  and  the  great  constellations  of  the 
zodiac.  Motion  was  their  most  significant  manifestation. 
Motion  is  the  generator  of  tone-music,  whether  of  the  voice  or 
instrument,  or  other  terrestrial  phenomena.  Music  thus 
being  the  resultant  of  terrestrial  motion,  how  natural  to  the 
ancient  philosopher,  hardly  less  than  poet  and  musician,  to 
conceive  that  the  celestial  spheres,  in  their  wonderful  orbital 
velocity,  should  produce  upon  the  ear  of  the  Creator,  and  pos- 
sibly upon  the  spirits  of  the  ancient  gods  and  the  souls  of  the 
dead  Egyptian,  harmony  not  unlike  that  of  earth,  but  more 
glorious  and  grand,  even  as  the  heavens  are  above  the  earth. 
May  not  Moses,  or  Pythagoras  the  Greek,  both  of  whom  were 
priests  of  the  temples,  learned  in  all  the  knowledge  of  the 
Egyptians,  of  which  music  was  not  the  least  even  in  the  days 
of  the  first,  have  conceived  that  the  music  of  earth  was  but 
the  echo  of  the  harp  of  the  universe,  whose  strings  were 
planetary  orbits,  set  in  vibratory  motion  by  the  breath  of  the 
Perfect  Master,  Deity  himself,  in  the  morning  of  creation  ? 
This,  of  course,  is  a  mental  conception  which  the  limited 
capacity  of  man  can  never  demonstrate  as  truth.  So 
smoothly  run  the  planets  in  their  mighty  courses  round  the 
sun,  that  man  cannot  physically  appreciate  the  slightest  mo- 
tion ;  and  nothing  but  his  knowledge  of  mathematical  astron- 
omy demonstrates  the  fact  that  the  earth  on  which  he  lives 
shoots  through  space  with  a  velocity  of  one  thousand  two 
hundred  miles  a  minute;  Venus  a  little  faster,  and  Mercury 
one  thousand  eight  hundred  miles  a  minute  ;  yea,  that  during 
this  hour's  entertainment,  the  earth  has  been  hurled  through 
space  seventy-two  thousand  miles.  Such  motion  may  evolve 


"266  MUSIC    AND    ITS    INFLUENCES. 

music,  grand  and  harmonious  to  an  Infinite  Mind  in  the 
realms  of  outer  space.  Thus,  the  "  Music  of  the  Spheres," 
•"  Celestial  Harmony,"  while  treated  as  the  expression  of  an 
-ancient  poetic  fancy,  ma}'  nevertheless  have  a  basis  of  philo- 
sophic truth  in  the  unsolvable  mysteries  of  the  Divine  Archi- 
tect of  Nature. 

How  much  of  music,  as  we  understand  the  art,  the  old 
Egyptians  knew  and  practised,  may  be  inferred  from  the 
sacred  Hebrew  record.  The  foreign  people  who  went  out 
from  the  Delta  of  the  Nile,  in  the  great  exodus  fifteen  hun- 
dred years  before  our  era,  after  four  hundred  years'  residence, 
were  skilled  in  the  music  of  song,  the  harp  and  the  timbrel, 
and  all  other  instruments  known  to  the  Egyptian.  That 
words  were  written  in  the  form  of  song,  or  Oriental  poetic 
prose,  and  music  composed  to  emphasize  and  inspire  the  same, 
somewhat  in  the  modern  style  of  our  musical  authors,  is  appar- 
ent from  the  delineations  upon  the  walls  of  temples  and  tombs, 
of  musical  instruments,  and  even  concerts  of  artistes  in  the 
courts  of  the  Pharaohs,  celebrating  praises  to  Isis  and  Osiris, 
or  events  of  war  and  conquest.  That  the  Hebrews  there  resi- 
dent had  become  equally  skilled  with  the  native  Egyptians,  is 
unquestionably  demonstrated  in  even  the  brief  outline  of  the 
sacred  record  wherein  is  disclosed  the  theme,  the  ascription  of 
praise  and  a  few  of  the  words  of  the  first  and  sublimest  Ora- 
torio of  antiquity,  The  Triumph  of  the  Red  Sea, 

The  celebration  of  national  events  in  modern  times  is  prin- 
cipally by  the  speeches  of  orators  and  statesmen  ;  in  antiquity, 
"by  music.  The  speech  of  Paul  at  Mars  Hill,  the  grandest 
oration  of  later  times,  cast  into  the  shade  the  orations  of 
Demosthenes,  Pericles  and  Cicero  of  earlier  ages,  but  is  no 
fuller  recorded  or  better  known  to-day  than  is  the  burden  of 
the  triumphal  song  of  Moses.  The  event  which  the  Hebrews 
celebrated  was  by  music,  the  most  natural  and  expressive  out- 
burst of  the  soul  in  praise  to  God  for  national  deliverance. 
Orations  and  speeches,  like  those  of  modern  times,  would 


MUSIC    AND    ITS    INFLUENCES.  267 

have  been  tame,  inexpressive,  and  would  not  in  that  day  have 
been  reported  so  as  to  have  been  transmitted  to  subsequent 
-ages.  But  music  lives  when  speech  is  lost. 

The  Oratorio  of  the  Red  Sea  was  no  ephemeral  or  hasty 
affair.  Preparation  was  made,  and  time  was  set  for  the 
national  celebration.  The  great  theme  was  written,  and 
nobler  strains  of  music  were  composed  than  ever  had  sounded 
in  Egyptian  temple,  or  wafted  around  sphinx  or  pyramid. 
The  singers  were  selected,  and  the  instruments  determined. 
When  the  time  arrived  and  all  was  in  readiness,  and  the  great 
audience  of  Israel  were  seated,  the  curtain  was  raised,  and 
Moses,  the  leader  of  men  and  the  master  of  music,  appeared 
upon  the  stage  and  voiced  the  wonderful  composition  con- 
tained in  the  fifteenth  chapter  of  Exodus,  chorused  by  the 
audience  :  "  I  will  sing  unto  the  Lord,  for  He  hath  triumphed 
gloriously ;  the  horse  and  his  rider  hath  He  thrown  into  the 
sea.  The  Lord  is  my  strength  and  song,  and  He  is  my  salva- 
tion ;  He  is  my  God.  and  I  will  exalt  Him.  Pharaoh's  chariots 
and  his  host  hath  He  cast  into  the  sea  ;  his  chosen  captains 
also  are  drowned  in  the  Red  Sea.  The  depths  have  covered 
them  ;  they  sank  into  the  bottom  as  a  stone.  With  the  blast 
of  Thy  nostrils  the  waters  were  gathered  together ;  the  flood 
stood  upright  as  a  heap,  and  the  depths  were  congealed  in  the 
heart  of  the  sea." 

In  the  next  act  appeared  the  first  and  most  renowned 
prima  donna  of  history,  the  beautiful  daughter  of  Israel, 
Miriam,  the  prophetess,  and  the  accomplished  sister  of  the 
leading  star.  With  timbrel  in  hand,  she  was  followed  by  a 
great  choir  of  women,  also  with  timbrels,  and  Miriam  struck 
the  note  :  "  Sing  ye  to  the  Lord,  for  He  hath  triumphed  glor- 
iously ;  the  horse  and  his  rider  hath  He  thrown  into  the  sea." 

Such  are  the  dim  outlines  of  the  first  great  concert  of  the 
world.  History  is  silent  touching  the  reception  of  the  re- 
nowned singers,  or  the  applause  with  which  they  were  greeted, 
the  bouquets  that  were  showered  down  upon  the  graceful 


268  MUSIC    AND    ITS    INFLUENCES. 

Miriam,  or  other  demonstrations  of  professional  regard  ;  but 
a  sensible  mind  cannot  deem  it  as  treating  lightly  the  sacred 
record,  when  it  is  considered  that  humanity  is  substantially 
the  same  in  all  ages.  Had  we  the  libretto  of  the  occasion, 
with  the  names  of  the  singers,  or  a  copy  of  the  Migdol  Daily 
Tribune  of  the  next  morning  after  the  Oratorio  of  the  Tri- 
umph of  the  Red  Sea,  the  present  and  the  remote  past  would 
doubtless  seem  not  very  much  unlike.  The  reporters  might  be 
relied  upon  for  an  exact  and  impartial  account,  while  proba- 
bly the  Pharaohonic  editor  would  have  an  editorial  character- 
izing the  concert  as  a  failure,  and  the  ascription  of  praise  to 
the  God  of  the  Hebrews  as  but  an  insult  to  Apis  and  the 
sacred  Crocodile. 

Egypt  was  the  educator  of  Greece,  and  in  the  process  of 
time  music  was  wafted  to  the  shores  of  the  ^Egean  Sea.  Here 
it  underwent  a  new  nomenclature,  and  its  principles  were 
symbolized  with  the  gods  and  goddesses  of  the  mythical  age, 
until  in  later  times  the  philosophers,  Pythagoras,  Aristotle 
and  others  sought  its  principles  in  nature.  The  ultimate 
result  was,  that  all  is  number  and  harmon}T.  Numbers  are  the 
guides  and  preservers  of  the  harmony  of  the  universe.  They 
define  form,  order  and  the  laws  of  things.  In  them  is  con- 
tained the  real  being  of  all  things  that  exist.  All  numbers 
are  repetitions  of  the  first  ten.  The  ten  spring  from  unit}^ 
which  is  therefore  the  origin  of  all  things.  The  great  num- 
ber is  the  number  four,  for  if  added  to  the  first  three,  pro- 
duces ten,  the  limit  and  consummation  of  the  fundamental 
numbers.  In  the  number  one,  the  point  is  contained ;  in  two, 
the  line ;  in  three,  the  superfices  j  but  in  four — the  first 
square — is  the  defining  of  all  bodies.  This  is  therefore  the 
root  of  nature.  Numbers  are  the  .  spiritual  essence  of  music. 
What  we  hear  in  the  vibrations  of  a  material  are  numbers. 
In  the  motion  of  the  heavenly  bodies  we  see  numbers.  Music 
and  the  celestial  bodies  are  therefore  closely  related  to  each 
other.  Ratios  in  the  length  of  strings,  were^  discovered  by 


MUSIC    AND    ITS    INFLUENCES.  269 

Pythagoras,  or  by  the  Egyptians.  All  things,  whether  seen 
or  heard,  were  numbers  and  harmony.  "Therefore,"  says  the 
Greek,  "  it  is  the  business  of  music  not  only  to  preside  over 
the  voice  and  musical  instruments,  but  even  to  harmonize  all 
things  contained  in  the  universe."  God  organized  all  nature 
according  to  the  laws  of  harmony,  was  a  tenet  of  the  Greek. 
The  lyre  was  considered  a  symbol  of  the  cosmos.  The  heav- 
enly bodies  were  musical  instruments  sounding  forth  melo- 
dies of  indescribable  sublimity.  The  laws  of  harmony  were 
the  same  laws  that  built  and  preserved  the  universe.  In  con- 
sequence of  this  sublime  conception,  the  practice  of  music  was 
enjoined  as  a  highly  virtuous  and  especially  meritorious 
action,  "for  music,"  said  Pythagoras,  "purifies  the  soul." 
Another  philosopher  held  that  "  the  soul  is  a  tension  of  the 
body  ;  and  that,  as  vibrations  are  produced  on  strings,  so  the 
emotions  manifested  themselves  by  producing  vibrations  on 
the  body — the  soul  acting  as  tension." 

The  course  of  music,  like  the  emigration  of  peoples  and  the 
star  of  empire,  was  westward.  From  the  rise  of  Christianity, 
through  the  dark  and  gloomy  thousand  years  known  as  the 
Middle  Ages,  and  until  about  the  fifteenth  century,  music  in 
Western  Europe  was  principally  under  the  control  of  the 
ecclesiastics,  and  utilized  almost  exclusively  in  the  service  of 
the  Church. 

As  the  ancients  beheld  in  music  manifestations  of  the  same 
causes  that  produced  the  elements  or  planets,  so  the  scholas- 
tics and  monks,  to  show  equal  wisdom  with  the  Egyptian  and 
Greek  philosophers,  also  symbolized  the  principles  of  music, 
but  wholly  referred  the  same  to  scriptural  typifications,  rather 
than  to  those  of  nature.  The  relation  to  what  was  termed  the 
plagal  and  authentic  modes  they  conceived  such  typical  of 
the  chariot  wheel  within  a  wheel,  described  in  the  vision  of 
Ezekiel.  Music  was  a  symbol  of  the  Church,  in  that  it  was 
composed  of  many  parts.  It  was  cosmical  and  human ;  so  the 
Bible  was  divided  into  two  Testaments.  There  were  three 


270  MUSIC    AND    ITS    INFLUENCES. 

classes  of  musical  instruments :  so  of  course  they  corres- 
ponded to  Faith,  Hope  and  Charity.  A  composition  is  com- 
posed of  a  first,  middle  and  final  part ;  wonderfully,  it  was  sup- 
posed or  pretended,  significant  of  the  Trinity.  And  so  the 
monks  continued  to  symbolize  ad  infinitum,  outdoing  all 
heathen  antiquity  in  the  matter  of  the  symbolization  of  music. 
It  is  not  recorded  that  the  monks  compared  it  with,  and 
extolled  it  as  physic  either  for  body  or  soul ;  but  with  their 
never-ending  extent  of  inapt  and  illogical  symbolization, 
physic  suggests  itself. 

The  first  record  of  a  singing  school  is  that  of  one  estab- 
lished in  Rome  by  Pope  Sylvester,  A.  D.  330.  The  kind  of 
music  taught  is  unknown,  but  limited,  doubtless,  to  the  cus- 
toms of  the  Church,  and  adapted  to  hymns  and  chants. 

Seventy  years  afterwards,  St.  Ambrose,  Archbishop  of 
Milan,  took  an  interest  in  the  culture  of  music,  and  arranged 
the  four  diatonic  scales,  known  as  "The  Authentic  Mode," 
composed  himself  new  hymns  and  chants,  and  organized  a 
fine  choir  in  his  own  church  at  Milan.  The  Authorized  Mode 
did  service  for  about  two  hundred  years,  till  it  became  deteri- 
orated or  unfashionable  ;  when  Gregory  the  Great  (590),  dur- 
ing his  pontificate,  undertook  the  work  of  musical  reformation 
and  improvement,  and  it  is  said,  restored  to  Church  song  that 
solemnity  of  character  which  it  had  gradually  lost.  The 
modes  he  established  are  known  as  the  "_  Gregorian  Modes." 
He  established  a  school,  at  which  his  system  and  the  order  of 
the  Church  service  were  systematically  taught.  The  S3'stem 
founded  by  this  prelate  became  universal  in  Christian  coun- 
tries, and  schools  were  established  in  principal  dioceses,  but 
not  so  much  success  was  met  as  anticipated,  owing  to  the  un- 
tutored condition  of  the  people,  who  in  that  age  were  rude  to 
the  extreme. 

Two  hundred  years  later,  the  Emperor  Charlemagne  (800) 
founded  music  schools  at  Metz  and  other  towns,  and  placed 
them  under  Italian  singers  of  note.  Alcuin,  a  British  eccle- 


MUSIC    AND    ITS    INFLUENCES.  271 

siastic,  an  accomplished  teacher  of  the  Gregorian  system,  was 
employed  by  the  Emperor  as  Principal  in  these  schools.  The 
interest  which  Charlemagne  took  in  this  enterprise  established 
the  Gregorian  system  throughout  Europe.  , 

Musical  notes  were  but  dots  and  scratches  until  about  the 
year  1050,  when  Guido  of  Arezzo  added  two  lines  to  the  staff, 
and  invented  the  terms  ut,  re,  mi,  fa,  sol,  la,  sa,  which  are  sub- 
stantially as  known  to  the  student  of  music  to-day.  There 
had  ever  been  a  necessity  for  having  the  musical  lan- 
guage expressed  by  fixed  and  invariable  signs.  This  made 
the  language  of  music  universal — the  Englishman,  French- 
man, German  and  Italian,  who  did  not  know  enough  of  each 
other's  language  to  exchange  salutations,  could  thenceforth 
sing  and  play  from  the  same  printed  or  written  music  in 
harmony.  This  great  discovery  and  revolution  in  musical 
notation  was  evolved  out  of  the  first  syllables  of  the  little 
Latin  hymn  of  St.  John  the  Baptist,  a  special  and  determined 
character  being  assigned  to  each.  The  hymn  is  composed 
as  follows : 

Ut  queant  laxis 
JResonare  fibris 
MiTSi  gestorum 
.Famuli  tuorum 
•SoZve  pulluti 
iabii  rectum 
•Sanctae  Johannes. 

Ut  was  afterwards  changed  to  do,  and  sa  for  si,  by  some 
acknowledged  musical  authority,  as  being  more  euphonious, 
but  otherwise  the  same  little  syllables  have  done  the  world  a 
service  and  held  their  place  for  eight  hundred  years. 

Notwithstanding  music  as  a  cultivated  art  was  appropriated 
chiefly  to  the  uses  of  the  ecclesiastics  in  the  long  and  gloomy 
period  of  more  than  a  thousand  years  in  Western  Europe, 
there  was,  nevertheless,  a  kind  of  native  music  and  song. 


272  MUSIC    AND    ITS    INFLUENCES. 

among  the  untutored,  and  even  the  most  rude  and  uncivilized 
of  the  people.  The  Scandinavian  of  the  frozen  North,  the 
ancient  Briton,  the  Caledonian  Highlander,  the  primitive 
Welsh,  the  Hibernian,  the  Basque  of  the  Pj'renees,  the  Gaul 
and  the  Teuton,  had  their  primitive  poets,  scalds  and  sagas, 
who  composed  or  improvised  of  love  and  war,  and  entertained 
their  families  or  friends  in  their  rude  huts,  or  crowds  in  the 
villages  and  incipient  cities,  with  singing  or  droning  recita- 
tions more  or  less  melodious.  Such  was  the  secular  music. 

After  the  Crusades  of  the  eleventh  and  twelfth  centuries, 
which  had  exhausted  in  a  measure  the  fanaticism,  bigotry  and 
intolerance  of  the  age,  and  more  than  decimated  the  people 
of  Europe  in  a  war  with  the  Saracens  of  Palestine,  there  was 
a  new  birth  of  poetry  and  song.  Superstition  had  vanished 
under  the  realities  of  the  sword  of  Saladin.  Those  who  lived 
to  return  had  learned  something  of  the  wisdom  of  the  world, 
and  were  happy  to  see  the  hills  and  vales  of  France  once 
more,  even  as  beggars,  where  once  they  had  been  princes  and 
owners  of  great  estates.  Fascinated  by  the  graceful  and 
ornate  songs  of  the  Orientals,  which  they  had  learned,  they 
imitated  them,  and  introduced  into  France  a  new  melod}'  and 
a  new  song.  Thus  came  the  Troubadours  and  Minstrels  with 
their  songs  of  glory,  tenderness  and  love. 

"  Gaily  the  Troubadour  touched  his  guitar, 
As  he  was  hastening  home  from  the  war, 
Singing,  from  Palestine  hither  I  come, 
Lady  love,  lady  love,  welcome  me  home." 

The  art  of  the  Troubadours  was  entitled  the  gaie  science, 
and  to  the  idea  of  gaiety  a  noble  meaning  was  attached. 
Gaiety,  or  joy,  was  a  state  of  mind  regarded  as  corresponding 
with  that  of  religious  grace.  The  end  of  their  profession  was 
the  service  of  religion,  honor  and  woman  in  deed  and  in  song. 
One  of  their  mottoes  was  :  "  My  soul  to  God,  my  life  for  the 
king,  my  heart  for  my  lady,  my  honor  for  myself." 


MUSIC    AND    ITS    INFLUENCES.  273 

The  most  famous  of  the  Troubadours,  or  Wandering  Min- 
strels, was  Adam  de  la  Hale,  about  1280,  who  wrote  songs  in 
three-part  harmony,  the  melodies  of  which  would  be  ac- 
counted agreeable  even  in  the  present  day.  They  were  not 
unlike  the  popular  "  Folk-Songs "  of  Southern  France  and 
Northern  Spain,  as  still  sung  b}^  the  rural  population  in  those 
provinces.  As  in  those  early  times,  Church  music  was  in  the 
hands  of  ecclesiastics,  so  these  Troubadours  were  the  chier 
composers  of  secular  music.  In  France,  the  songs  of  the  peo- 
ple were  the  chanson  ;  in  Germany,  the  Lied  ;  in  England,  the 
song  and  the  glee ;  in  Italy,  the  frottole,  villotte,  canzonet. 
The  folk-song  of  the  Swedes,  Poles  and  Hungarians  have 
been  introduced  to  the  world,  and  proven  to  be  quaintly  orig- 
inal and  very  beautiful.  Among  the  folk-songs  of  the  Scotch 
are  many  which  are  judged  to  antedate  the  Christian  religion,, 
whose  form,  it  is  believed,  can  be  traced  back  to  the  Phrygian 
and  Dorian  Greek  ;  such  as  l(  My  Boy  Tammie,"  "  Roy's  Wife 
of  Aldivallach,"  "  Reel  of  Tulloch,"  and  even  "  Scots  wha  hae 
wi'  Wallace  bled."  From  the  old  Bards  of  Erin  and  Scotia, 
of  the  days  when  "  The  harp  that  once  through  Tara's  halls 
its  soul  of  music  shed,"  to  that  which  Scott  invoked  in  the 
"  Lady  of  the  Lake,"  "  Harp  of  the  North  that  mouldering 
long  hast  hung  on  the  witch-elm  that  guards  St.  Fillan's 
spring,"  have  descended  to  us  nearly  all  those  strains  of  mel- 
ody so  familiar,  so  dear  to  the  heart,  and  so  awakening  to  the 
emotions,  not  only  to  the  native,  but  to  the  American  people 
who  are  by  descent  the  inheritors  of  the  spirit,  poetry  and 
song  of  the  old  races  of  the  North.  Ossian's  "  Invocation  to 
the  Sun,"  from  out  the  cold,  bleak  mountains  of  the  North, 
still  awes  us  by  its  grandeur,  and  "  The  Pibroch  that  thrilled 
in  Glen  Fruin,"  to-day  inspires  the  Highland  regiment  alike 
in  the  jungles  of  Africa  and  upon  the  sultry  plains  of  India. 

About  1502,  Ottavio  Petrucci  invented  the  means  of  print- 
ing music  by  movable  metal  types.     Through  this  most  im- 
portant invention  of  printing  musical  works,  their  cost  was 
18 


274  MUSIC    AND    ITS    INFLUENCES. 

much  lessened,  and  the  music-loving  public  was  enabled  to 
possess  the  recognized  works  of  the  best  composers. 

It  is  claimed  that  music  schools  for  strictly  ecclesiastical 
music  were  established  at  Canterbu^,  the  seat  of  the  first 
Church  established  by  the  Roman  Pontiff,  and  still  the  seat 
of  the  Protestant  Primacy  of  England,  as  early  as  825,  and 
that  later  in  the  same  century  the  Great  Alfred,  whom  the  old 
chronicles  credit  with  being  himself  an  excellent  musician, 
founded  a  professorship  at  Oxford.  The  improved  Gregorian 
music  remained  in  use,  in  connection  with  the  offices  of  Relig- 
ion, until  the  dawn  of  that  revolution  inaugurated  in  Ger- 
many, known  in  history  as  the  Reformation  ;  when  its  leaders, 
differing  materially  in  their  opinions  of  the  manner  in  which 
the  Art  of  Music  was  to  be  rendered  most  effective  to  their 
objective  ends,  a  complete  change  was  felt  in  the  music  of  the 
Church.  The  great  leader  of  the  Reformation,  Luther,  in  his 
attack  upon  the  Church  of  Rome,  though  bold  and  uncom- 
promising, nevertheless,  as  he  had  been  taught  music,  and 
had  formed  a  high  opinion  of  its  influence  for  good  upon  the 
human  heart,  instead  of  abolishing  the  good  in  music  from 
his  new  form  of  worship,  he  made  it  his  business  and  highest 
aim  to  encourage  its  cultivation  as  an  eminently  Christian 
art,  and  for  that  purpose  adopted  a  religious  service  in  Ger- 
man to  the  ancient  and  grand  music  of  the  Roman  Mass  ;  and 
introduced  a  variety  of  hymns  and  Psalms  into  the  Church — 
some  of  the  best  of  which  he  is  said  to  be  the  author.  John 
Calvin,  the  great  cotemporary  of  Luther,  is  credited  with 
doing  a  similar  work  for  France  and  Switzerland,  and  for  the 
like  purpose. 

The  progress  of  the  Reformation  may  possibly  be  attributed 
quite  as  much  to  the  new  and  melodious  tunes  adapted  to  the 
venerable  psalms  and  hymns  as  to  any  material  change  in 
orthodox  theology  ;  for  a  cotemporary  of  Luther — an  adher- 
ent of  the  old  Church — complained,  it  is  said,  that  "the  whole 
of  Germany  was  singing  itself  into  the  Lutheran  doctrine." 


MUSIC    AND    ITS    INFLUENCES.  275 

Such  items  of  theological  history  are  here  used,  however,  only 
as  showing  what  wonderful  influence  has  ever  been  attributed 
to  music  in  all  great  events  in  past  ages.  That  music  has  a 
place  in  all  histories  is  ever  written  and  talked  about. 

The  poetry  of  the  Reformation,  wedded  to  music  worthy  of 
it,  was  treasured  in  the  hearts  and  homes  of  the  faithful,  from 
the  mountains  of  Switzerland  to  the  shores  of  the  Baltic,  and 
from  the  banks  of  the  Rhine  to  those  of  the  Vistula  and  Dan- 
ube. In  addition  to  the  German  sacred  songs,  a  number  of 
hymns,  translated  from  the  older  poets  of  Bohemia,  were 
greatly  prized  in  the  land  of  Luther.  The  Church  songs  in 
use  among  the  Germans  and  Bohemians  were  the  old  Hymns 
and  Sequences.  The  Psalms,  so  dear  to  the  fathers  of  the 
Church,  and  which,  in  earlier  ages,  formed  the  true  liturgy 
and  hymn-book  of  the  people,  were  not  yet  recalled  by  the 
new  Church  to  their  old  place  of  honor  in  the  service  of  the 
sanctuary.  To  the  Reformers  remained  the  duty  of  solving 
the  question  of  a  Service  of  Praise,  and  the  possible  revival  of 
the  love  of  the  early  Christian  Church  for  the  Psalms  of 
David. 

In  England,  as  in  Germany,  the  object  of  the  Reformers 
toeing  to  purify  religion  from  whatever  was  corrupt,  retaining 
all  that  was  good ;  choral  music  was  preserved,  particularly 
in  the  Cathedrals  and  Collegiate  Churches.  Henry  VIII. 
(1521),  a  devotee  of  music,  in  connection  with  his  Minister, 
Cardinal  Woolse}7,  preserved  the  Choral  Service  in  its  most 
perfect  and  solemn  forms  ;  and  schools  for  music,  connected 
with  all  the  Cathedrals,  were  sustained. 

In  the  reign  of  Elizabeth,  from  1558,  the  Papacy  was  abol- 
ished, with  all  the  usages  of  the  Romish  Church,  and  the 
English  Church  was  established.  For  nearly  a  century  from 
this  time,  continual  changes  in  the  government,  civil  war,  and 
the  consequent  disregard  of  the  arts  and  higher  forms  of  edu- 
cation, allowed  the  taste  for,  and  the  cultivation  of  music  to 
be  neglected.  It  was  indeed  banished  from  the  Churches,  and 


276  MUSIC    AND    ITS    INFLUENCES. 

in  a  great  degree  from  private  families.  By  an  ordinance 
made  in  1644,  organs  in  churches  and  chapels  were  taken 
down,  and  an  infuriated  populace  demolished  these  instru- 
ments. At  the  succession  and  during  the  reign  of  Charles  II., 
the  clergy  were  returned  to  the  station  and  property  of  the 
Church  of  which  they  had  been  despoiled,  and  music  as  an  art 
rose  again. 

From  1500  to  1545,  under  the  great  Italian  masters,  the  art 
of  music,  as  employed  in  the  service  of  the  Catholic  Church  at 
Rome  and  elsewhere,  progressed  till  it  found  its  culminating 
point  in  the  advent  of  Palestrina,  who  was  regarded  as  the 
model  composer  of  the  noble  style  of  Church  music.  By 
idealizing,  in  the  sense  of  the  Catholic  Church,  its  mystic 
religious  life,  by  ennobling,  enriching  and  purifying  its  inward 
contents,  he  perfected  the  organism  of  his  art.  The  musical 
drama,  or  opera,  as  it  was  afterwards  called,  was  at  this  time 
the  center  of  attraction  for  the  talent  and  genius  of  some  of 
the  most  able  musicians  of  the  century  ;  and  owing  to  the  fact 
of  its  increasing  popularity,  as  also  affording  a  more  abundant 
remuneration  for  the  labors  of  the  composer,  Church  music 
began  to  be  neglected,  save  by  those  inspired  souls  who  felt 
themselves  particularly  chosen  to  advance  sacred  art.  Pales- 
trina, however,  remained  true  to  the  traditions  of  the  systems 
of  the  ecclesiastical  modes,  and  was  ever  afterward  recog- 
nized as  the  saviour  of  Church  Music. 

The  gradual  and  successful  development  of  the  musical 
drama  had  a  marked  effect  upon  the  growth  of  music  in  the 
Church.  The  old  ecclesiastical  keys  were  gradually  trans- 
formed into  the  more  modern  system  of  tonality,  and  eventu- 
ally the  whole  character  of  musical  composition  was  changed, 
although,  for  more  than  a  century,  the  successors  of  Palestrina 
adhered  to  the  art  principles  of  their  great  master.  Most  of 
the  composers,  both  Italian  and  German,  up  to  the,  beginning 
of  the  eighteenth  century,  were  successful  in  the  musical 
drama,  as  well  as  in  the  music  of  the  Church,  and  up  to  that 


MUSIC    AND    ITS    INFLUENCES.  277 

time  they  had  maintained  a  visible  line  of  demarkation 
between  the  two  distinct  types  of  composition.  At  the  com- 
mencement of  the  eighteenth  century  the  form  of  the  drama 
per  musica,  or  opera,  was  distinctly  felt  in  the  mass,  hymn, 
psalm,  and  other  Church  music,  and  the  old  tradition  of  a 
strict  church  style  was  banished  from  the  mind  of  the  com- 
poser. 

There  were  four  distinct  schools  in  Italy,  that  of  Rome,  the 
Neapolitan,  the  Venetian,  and  the  Bolognese.  At  Rome, 
Allegri,  Agrostini  and  Carrissimi  followed  the  traditions  of 
Palestrina.  Gregorio  Allegri,  a  singer  and  composer  in  the 
Pope's  Chapel  at  Rome,  1629,  composed  the  Miserere,  which 
for  more  than  a  hundred  and  fifty  years  was  performed,  on 
Wednesday  and  Friday  during  Passion-week,  in  the  Papal 
chapel.  This  Miserere  is  in  appearance  of  a  simple  form,  con- 
sisting of  two  alternate  choruses,  one  in  four  parts  and  the 
other  in  five  parts,  the  two  being  brought  to  simultaneous 
concord  at  the  last  verse  of  the  hymn.  The  effect  produced 
by  the  composition  is  in  a  great  measure  due  to  a  peculiar 
traditional  manner  of  rendering  with  regard  to  the  expression, 
and  frequent  changes  of  light  and  shade,  enhanced  by  the 
mystery  of  the  rites  belonging  to  this  service.  The  Pope  and 
Conclave  are  all  prostrate  upon  the  ground  ;  the  candles  of  the 
chapel  and  the  torches  of  the  balustrade  are  extinguished  one 
by  one ;  when  in  darkness  the  two  choirs  unite  in  the  last 
verse,  the  chapel  master  beating  the  time  slower  and  slower, 
the  singers  diminish,  or  rather  extinguish  the  harmony  to  a 
perfect  point,  where  words  fall  far  short  of  expressing  the 
overpoweringly  solemn,  melting  effect  of  these  dying  tones, 
telling  in  mystic  cadence  of  the  passion  of  Christ. 

The  great  composers  of  the  mass,  which  is  the  musical  ser- 
vice of  the  Church  of  Rome,  are  Mozart,  Haydn,  Beethoven, 
Hummel,  Cherubini,  who  have  employed  all  the  depth  and  ten- 
derness of  melody  and  richest  harmony  in  this  kind  of  com- 
position. 


278  MUSIC    AND    ITS    INFLUENCES. 

The  invention  of  the  Oratorio,  which  is  a  species  of  musical 
drama  consisting  of  airs,  recitations,  duets,  trios  and  choruses, 
is  commonly  ascribed  to  St.  Philip  who  founded  in  Rome,  in 
1540,  the  congregation  of  the  Oratory  (or are — to  pray).  This 
ecclesiastic,  wishing  to  distract  the  attention  of  his  parish- 
ioners from  the  theatre — the  mania  for  which  often  kept  them 
from  their  religious  duties — formed  the  idea  of  having  Sacred 
Interludes  written  by  a  poet,  set  to  the  music  of  able  com- 
posers, and  performed  by  the  most  celebrated  singers.  The 
experiment  succeeded  ;  crowds  were  attracted  to  the  concerts, 
which  took  the  name  of  Oratorios,  from  the  Church  of  the 
Oratory,  where  they  were  performed.  The  great  names  iden- 
tified with  this  important  school  of  music  are  Carrissimi 
(1580),  Jeptha  and  Jonah  are  his  best  known  works.  Henrich 
Schultz  (1585)  is  styled  the  father  of  German  Oratorio.  He 
wrote  The  Passion  Story  of  the  Resurrection,  and  Seven  Last 
Words.  Hosanna  to  the  Son  of  David,  is  a  composition  of  an 
Englishman,  Gibbons  (1625). 

Henry  Purcell,  organist  of  Westminster  Abbey,  1677,  was 
styled  "  the  greatest  English  musical  genius."  He  wrote  the  Te 
Deum  and  Jubilate,  performed  at  St.  Paul's  Cathedral,  besides 
many  operas.  William  Croft  (1727)  wrote  the  Oratorio  Solo- 
mon. John  Sebastian  Bach  (1750)  was  a  prolific  German  writer 
of  Oratorios.  Hsendel  (1759)  is  the  author  of  many  celebrated 
works,  among  which  are  the  Messiah,  Samson  and  Belshazzar. 
Haydn  composed  a  large  number  of  symphonies,  operas, 
masses,  concerts,  quartettes  and  trios  and  other  instrumental 
works.  At  the  age  of  66  he  produced  the  great  Oratorio  of 
The  Creation.  This  work  produced  a  profound  impression  at 
the  final  performance,  which  took  place  at  Vienna.  The  fame 
of  The  Creation  spread  through  Europe ;  in  England  it  ha& 
long  been  second  only  to  The  Messiah  in  popular  favor. 

In  Opera,  Gluck,  Mozart  and  Beethoven  are  the  great 
names  in  German  musical  history  ;  Gluck  (1787),  whose  first 
opera  was  Artaxerxes,  produced  in  Milan.  It  was  followed 


MUSIC    AND    ITS    INFLUENCES.  279 

by  Clytemnestra  and  Demetrio.  He  visited  England  and  pro- 
duced Caduta  del  Giganti  and  Artamene  at  the  Haymarket. 
Mozart  in  1770  produced  his  Opera  Mitridate  ;  next  La  Finta 
Geardiniera  and  Idomeneo.  Don  Giovanni  is  his  most  cele- 
brated operatic  work,  while  his  Requiem  holds  a  high  place 
in  the  public  regard.  Beethoven's  Mount  of  Olives  is  the 
most  celebrated  of  his  Oratorios,  but  his  works  are  numerous. 
Since  the  above  great  names  have  come  Hummel,  a  pupil  of 
Mozart,  Spohr  of  Brunswick,  whose  Oratorio,  The  Last  Judg- 
ment and  Calvary,  are  best  known  in  this  country.  Karl  Von 
Weber  (1786  to  1826)  opens  upon  the  musical  world  with  his 
opera  Der  Freischuetz,  followed  by  Oberon  for  the  English 
stage,  and  Euryanthe.  Weber's  works  are  very  popular 
to-day.  Franz  Schubert  ('97  to  '28),  wrote  Hagar's  Lament, 
Rosamond  and  Miriam's  Battle  Song.  Jacob  Myerbeer  ('94 
to  '64)  produced  the  Huguenots,  L'Africane,  Jephtha's  Daugh- 
ter, Margherita  d'  Anjou,  and  Robert  le  Diable,  all  of  which 
are  alive,  popular  and  familiar  to  all.  Felix  Mendelssohn- 
Bartholdy's  (1809  to  1847)  last  great  work  was  the  Elijah, 
composed  for  and  produced  at  the  Birmingham  Festival 
of  1846. 

Robert  Schumann  (1810  to  1856)  composed  Paradise  and 
The  Peri,  a  setting  to  music  of  Moore's  Lalla  Rookh,  an 
opera  Genevieve,  Manfred  and  the  Pilgrimage  of  the  Rose. 
Auber  (1782  to  1871),  for  many  years  director  of  the  Paris 
Conservatoire,  devoted,  was  the  author  of  Fra  Diavolo  and 
numerous  other  works.  Rossini  (1792  to  1868)  produced,  for 
the  Carnival  at  Rome  in  the  year  1816,  the  Barbiere  di  Sivig- 
lia  and  Moses  in  Egypt.  His  great  cotemporaries  were  Bel- 
lini, who  composed  Norma  and  La  Somnambula ;  Donizetti, 
author  of  Lucrezia  Borgia,  Lucia  di  Lammermoor,  Don  Pas- 
quale,  and  the  Daughter  of  the  Regiment.  Gounod  stands  at 
the  head  of  French  composers  of  the  present  day.  His  Co- 
temporaries  are  Ambrose  Thoreau,  Flotow  and  Offenbach,  the 
latter  the  composer  of  La  Grande  Duchess,  Barbe  Blue,  etc. 


280  MUSIC    AND    ITS    INFLUENCES. 

Joseph  Verdi  is  unrivalled  among  the  Italians.  He  is  the 
author  of  II  Trovatore,  Erani,  etc. 

Richard  Wagner  (b.  1813)  has  of  late  years  been  the  sub- 
ject of  bitter  controversy  among  musicians.  He  is  the  author 
of  Tannhauser's  Lohengrin;  and  his  last  great  contribution  to 
the  "music  of  the  future,"  is  the  Der  Ring  der  Nibelungen. 
His  methods  are  becoming  better  understood,  and  the  Hun- 
garian, Liszt,  is  among  his  strongest  advocates. 

These  names  are  only  a  few  of  the  many  hundreds  of  great 
and  distinguished  names  in  modern  music,  either  as  com- 
posers or  executors  of  renowned  compositions,  whether  for 
the  voice  or  instrument.  Of  the  noted  artists  who  are  most 
familiar  to  the  present  generation,  may  be  mentioned  Mario, 
Malibran,  Grisi,  Jenny  Lind,  Garcia,  Alboni,  Albani,  Cam- 
panini,  Anna  Louise  Gary,  Kellogg,  Lucca,  Nilsson,  Adeline 
Patti,  Carlotta  Patti,  Parepa-Rosa,  Piccolomini,  Adelaide 
Phillips,  Sontag,  Titiens,  Emma  Abbott,  Mrs.  Seguin,  Maria 
Roze,  Minnie  Houck  and  Hilbron. 

A  marvelous  power  has  been  attributed  to  music  in  all  ages 
of  the  world.  It  was  the  source  of  a  multitude  of  fables  in 
which  exaggeration  and  imagination  played  a  chief  part. 
But  whatever  the  stories,  and  however  improbable  they  may 
be,  they  nevertheless  bear  witness  to  the  importance  of  music 
and  its  power  of  fascination. 

That  Orpheus  tamed  wild  beasts  by  the  bewitching  tones 
of  his  flute  is  not  strange  or  remarkably  wonderful,  for  music 
is  resorted  to  daily  by  tamers  of  animals  in  caravans  peram- 
bulating the  country  for  the  instruction  and  delight  of  the  ris- 
ing generation.  And  it  is  told  of  a  Northern  lady  who  spends 
her  winters  in  Florida,  that  she  possesses  the  fascinating  gift 
of  calling  around  her  a  variety  of  beautiful  birds  of  the  for- 
est, some  of  which  will  perch  upon  her  head  and  shoulders 
and  flutter  at  her  feet,  captivated  by  her  sweet  voice  and  gen- 
tleness of  spirit.  But  if  Amphion  erected  the  wall  of  Grecian 
Thebes  by  means  of  his  songs,  it  must  doubtless  be  taken  in 


MUSIC   AND    ITS    INFLUENCES.  281 

:a  modern  sense.  The  fact  probably  is  that  the  city  in  its 
infanc}'  had  not  resources  equal  to  so  great  a  municipal  un- 
dertaking ;  so  Amphion,  who  was  a  splendid  musician  and  a 
public-spirited  person,  as  good  musicians  are  with  us,  to  meet 
the  financial  exigencies  of  the  city,  gave  a  series  of  concerts 
which  were  so  popular,  that  gentlemen  and  ladies  of  wealth 
and  musical  tastes  approved  and  patronized  them,  and  thus 
the  walls  of  the  Thebes  were  erected. 

Bunker  Hill  Monument  remained  untouched  for  years  after 
the  foundation  was  laid,  for  want  of  funds,  and  until  an  im- 
petus was  given  to  the  enterprise  by  a  celebrated  artist,  the 
wealth  of  whose  accomplishments  were  coined  into  money,  and 
the  proceeds  of  her  entertainments  generously  contributed 
for  the  pa3rment  of  the  toiling  men  in  the  granite  quarries  at 
Quincy. 

Plato  said  no  change  could  be  made  in  music  without  a 
similar  one  being  made  in  the  State.  And  Aristotle  con- 
trasted the  musical  race  of  Arcadia  for  gentleness  of  manners 
with  the  country  of  the  unmusical  Cynetes. 

The  Emperor  Nero,  concerning  whom  history  charges  that 
he  toyed  with  music  in  a  moment  of  dire  calamity,  was 
reputed  a  good  musical  artist,  having  studied  under  Greek 
masters.  The  old  story  has  been  handed  down  by  historians 
as  truth,  each  writer  aggravating  the  case  by  some  additional 
particulars,  no  matter  how  obtained.  The  real  facts  doubt- 
less were,  that  on  the  evening  when  the  fire  broke  out,  there 
was  a  music  soiree  at  the  Emperor's  palace,  at  which  were  in 
attendance  a  select  circle  of  Roman  artists  ;  that  when  the 
bells  sounded  the  alarm,  the  Emperor  and  company  were  in 
the  midst  of  a  rehearsal  of  some  grand  piece  of  musical  com- 
position, and  did  not  suspend  execution  till  the  final  bar  was 
closed.  The  concert  then  would  have  broken  up  had  not  the 
Prefect  (the  Mayor  of  Rome)  come  in  haste  to  the  palace  to 
notify  the  Emperor,  and  quiet  the  fears  of  the  imperial  court 
and  the  guests  of  the  evening,  that  there  was  not  occasion  for 


282  MUSIC    AND    ITS    INFLUENCES. 

alarm.  So  the  Emperor  bid  his  guests  remain  the  balance  of 
the  evening,  and  he  condescended  to  favor  the  company  with 
a  violin  solo.  His  enemies,  possibly  availing  themselves  of 
some  such  circumstance,  exaggerated  them,  and  history  has 
perpetuated  an  error.  It  is  safe  to  conclude  that  the  enemies 
of  Nero  had  no  respect  for  musical  art,  and  could  not  appre- 
ciate the  civilities  of  his  court  in  remaining  with  his  company 
of  distinguished  artists  instead  of  dismissing  them. 

According  to  the  most  ancient  traditions,  the  bagpipe  ha» 
always  been  the  favorite  instrument  of  the  Scotch,  since  it 
was  first  introduced  into  the  country  at  a  very  remote  period 
by  the  Norwegians.  The  larger  one  figures  in  their  battles, 
funeral  processions,  weddings  and  other  great  occasions  ;  the 
smaller  sized  one  is  devoted  to  dancing  music.  Certain  mar- 
tial airs,  called  pibrochs,  produce  the  same  effect  upon  the  na- 
tives of  the  Highlands  as  the  sound  of  trumpets  does  on  their 
chargers,  and  sometimes  even  wonders  are  performed  almost 
equal  to  those  attributed  to  the  music  of  ancient  Greece,  for 
which  we  have  Gibbon,  the  historian,  as  authority. 

It  is  related  that  at  the  battle  of  Quebec,  in  1768,  while  the 
British  troops  were  retreating  in  disorder,  the  Commander 
complained  to  a  staff  officer  of  Eraser's  regiment,  of  the  bad 
behavior  of  his  corps.  "Sir,"  replied  the  latter  with  some 
warmth,  "you  made  a  great  mistake  in  forbidding  bagpipes  to 
be  played ;  nothing  animates  the  Highlanders  to  such  a 
degree,  at  the  hour  of  battle  ;  even  now  they  might  be  useful.'' 
"Let  them  play  as  much  as  you  please,"  answered  the  Com- 
mander, "if  that  can  recall-the  soldiers  to  their  duty."  The 
musicians  received  an  order  to  play  the  favorite  martial  air  of 
the  Highlanders ;  as  soon  as  the  latter  heard  the  familiar 
tones  they  paused  in  their  flight  and  returned  with  alacrity  to 
their  post. 

Only  last  month  (Dec.  1881),  His  Royal  Highness,  the 
Duke  of  Edinburgh,  presiding  at  a  soiree  of  the  directors  of 
.the  Athenaeum  at  Free  Trade  Hall,  Manchester,  England,  for 


MUSIC    AND    ITS    INFLUENCES.  283- 

the  advancement  of  musical  science,  in  his  admirable  address,, 
reported  in  the  Manchester  Times,  happily  illustrates  the  in- 
fluence of  music.  His  Royal  Highness  said  :  "  There  is  the 
resolution  which  music  can  infuse  into  a  body  of  soldiers,, 
who  can  have  their  fatigue  lightened  and  their  step  quickened 
even  by  the  simple  notes  of  the  drum  and  fife,  and  who,  by  the 
martial  sound  of  the  '  War  March,'  may  be  animated  to  face 
the  greatest  dangers.  I  might  mention  the  remarkable  effects 
of  music  on  the  inhabitants  of  mountainous  countries.  Cer- 
tain tunes  are,  I  believe,  prohibited  in  the  Highland  regi- 
ments, because  of  the  intense  longing  for  home  which  they 
produce  in  the  men  on  foreign  service.  The  same  is  the  case 
with  the  Swiss,  and  this  desperate  desire  for  home,  excited 
and  aggravated  by  the  national  music  of  the  country,  has 
even  been  classified  as  a  distinct  disease  under  the  name  of 
nostalgia." 

During  the  Sepoy  rebellion,  in  India,  an  army  correspond- 
ent of  the  London  Times  made  some  depreciating  remarks 
touching  what  he  seemed  to  consider  the  trivial  pastimes  and 
amusements  of  the  Highland  regiments,  on  the  night  of  their 
last  bivouac  on  the  banks  of  the  Ganges,  on  their  march  to 
the  relief  of  Lucknow,  because  they  whiled  away  some  sleep- 
less hours  by  singing  "Bonny  Don"  and  "Mary's  Dream." 

"  The  moon  had  climbed  the  highest  hill 

That  rises  o'er  the  source  of  Dee, 
And  from  its  eastern  summit  shed 

Her  silver  light  on  tower  and  tree." 

Something  of  pity  should  be  awarded  the  man  whose  soul 
was  not  gifted  to  appreciate  the  most  felicitous  of  Scotland's 
lyrics  and  its  sweet  and  plaintive  melody,  upon  the  sultry 
plains  of  Hindostan.  But  when,  in  the  beleaguered  cit}^,  the 
practiced  ear  of  the  Scotch  lassie,  Jesse  Brown,  heard  in  ad- 
vance of  all  others  the  distant  notes  of  the  bagpipe,  and,  fran- 
tic with  joy,  ran  with  streaming  hair  through  the  streets  of 


"284  MUSIC    AND    ITS    INFLUENCES. 

Lucknow,  crying,  "  The  Campbells  are  coming  !  —  Dinna  ye 
hear  the  slogan  ?  "  English  women  and  children  in  the  be- 
leaguered city  had  no  criticisms  for  the  songs  of  the  High- 
landers, or  the  wild  and  piercing  notes  of  the  bagpipe. 

It  is  related,  in  a  note  to  one  of  Walter  Scott's  novels,  that 
in  the  Peninsular  war,  Sir  E}Tre  Coste,  appreciating  the  attach- 
ment which  the  Highlander  feels  for  the  music  of  his  native 
country,  gave  them  fifty  pounds  after  the  battle  of  Porto 
Nuovo  with  which  to  buy  bagpipes,  as  a  token  of  his  satisfac- 
tion with  their  conduct  on  that  day. 

The  national  songs  of  a  people,  the  music  and  melody  of 
which  are  so  blended  with  the  sentiment,  that  the  effect  upon 
the  heart  and  mind  is  nearly  the  same  whether  words  or  tune 
are  heard,  inspire  the  soul  like  the  sight  of  the  flag.  What 
would  be  our  county,  what  England,  or  what  France,  if  the 
spirit  of  the  national  songs  were  eradicated  from  the  hearts  of 
the  people?  When  "The  Star-Spangled  Banner"  shall  no 
longer  inspire  the  patriotic  heart  with  enthusiasm  and  de- 
light, the  Republic  will  have  fallen.  When  "  Rule  Britannia  " 
shall  no  longer  be  sung  in  the  land  of  Victoria,  the  dominion 
of  England  will  have  ceased  in  the  four  quarters  of  the  globe  ; 
and  when  the  Marsellaise  shall  be  forgotten  by  her  gallant 
sons,  France  will  have  become  Cossack  indeed. 

It  is  a  gratifying  evidence  of  the  civilization  and  culture  of 
nations  when  people  manifest  an  international  spirit  to  that 
degree  which  enables  them  to  appreciate  and  cherish  the  na- 
tional songs  of  each  other.  This  has  long  been  done  between 
America,  England  and  France.  And  now  we  can  add  to  the 
list  of  courteous  nations  the  great  German  Empire.  It  is 
related  in  the  Boston  Musical  Herald,  of  January,  1881,  that 
•"Miss  Emma  Thursby  sang  at  Baden-Baden  a  few  weeks 
since,  and  the  audience  included  the  Emperor  and  Empress 
of  Germany,  the  Grand  Duke  and  Duchess  of  Baden,  the 
€rown  Prince  of  Germany,  and  the  Princess  and  a  large  num- 


MUSIC    AND    ITS    INFLUENCES.  285- 

ber  of  the  nobility.  There  were  several  encores,  in  which  the 
Emperor  and  Empress  heartily  joined.  When  called  out  at 
the  close  of  the  concert,  she  sang  "  The  Star-Spangled  Ban- 
ner," and  the  Emperor  is  said  to  have  pronounced  it  the 
finest  national  ode  he  had  ever  listened  to." 

"  Peace  hath  her  triumphs  no  less  renowned  than  war,"  and 
music  is  the  harbinger  of  peace.  The  musical  artist  is  to  be 
the  future  diplomatist.  Music  is  destined  to  banish  war. 
The  mission  of  music  and  her  artists  is  destined  to  grand 
results,  not  only  in  the  culture  of  the  people,  but  in  the  paci- 
fication of  nations. 

In  contemplating  the  grandeur  and  glory  of  the  works  of 
the  great  masters  of  music,  we  should  not,  however,  forget  the 
sweet  songs  of  childhood  and  the  cradle.  Song  is  cultivated 
from  the  cradle,  and  mother  is  the  ever-remembered  teacher. 
Some  one  has  said  that  the  last  thoughts  of  a  dying  old  man 
are  of  his  mother's  face  and  voice,  when  she  sang  to  him  in 
infancy.  So  the  song  and  its  melody  once  learned  from  the 
lips  of  a  mother  abides  to  the  end.  Let  us  cherish  the 
national  melodies  and  songs. 

Music  being  a  science,  discovered  in  and  evolved  from  nat- 
ure, must  be  developed  and  illustrated  by  its  great  devotees 
and  learned  masters  like  the  other  sciences.  It  should  not  be 
charged  as  a  disparagement  to  the  general  intelligence  of  the 
great  mass  of  the  people,  that  they  are  not  adepts  in  its  pro- 
found mysteries,  and  skilled  in  the  illustration  of  its  wonder- 
ful harmonies,  like  the  great  masters  and  artists  of  our  time. 
Music  ranks  with  Astronomy,  but  how  many  of  all  whom  we 
are  pleased  to  call  learned  or  appreciative,  of  both  men  and 
women,  who  take  delight  in  contemplating  the  starry  heavens, 
comprehend  mathematical  Astronomy  ?  How  many  among 
them  delight  in  the  perusal  of  the  Mecanique  Celeste  of  La 
Place,  the  computations  of  Lagrange  and  Leverriere,  or  our 
own  Stockwell's  voluminous  and  famous  problems  of  the  sec- 


286  MUSIC    AND    ITS    INFLUENCES. 

ular  variations  of  the  orbits  of  planets  ?  Yet  how  few  there 
are  who  do  not  find  the  highest  gratification  when  some  tune- 
ful master  like  Richard  A.  Proctor  touches  the  strings  of  the 
Astronomical  harp  of  the  universe,  and  makes  even  mathe- 
matics melodious. 


ATLANTIS  AND  AMERICA MYTHS  VS.  REALITIES.        287 


ATLANTIS  AND  AMERICA— MYTHS  versus  REALITIES. 


PHE  lost  Atlantis  of  the  ancients  is  to  archaeologists,  eth- 
nologists,  linguists  snd  scholars  no  longer  a  myth.  Its 
former  existence  and  absolute  reality  is  more  firmly  estab- 
lished than  was  even  the  idea  of  a  continent  beyond  the  At- 
lantic, prophesied,  intimated  and  believed  by  geographers  and 
poets  of  the  nations  along  the  shores  of  the  Mediterranean 
four  hundred  years  ago,  and  which  inspired  Columbus  to  his 
momentous  undertaking.  The  evidence  which  has  been  de- 
veloped in  the  last  fifty  years,  and  indeed  more  especially 
within  the  last  ten,  collated  from  many  sources,  and  arrayed 
in  many  volumes,  is  irresistible  and  conclusive,  that  the 
island  of  Plato  was  a  reality  and  not  a  myth. 

The  most  ample  and  admirable  compilation  of  evidence 
illustrating  the  subject,  of  recent  date,  is  comprised  in  the 
work  of  Ignatius  Donnelly.  If  anything  in  remote  and  pre- 
historic times,  touching  continents,  islands,  peoples,  govern- 
ments and  religions,  has  ever  been  convincingly  established 
by  unquestioned  remains  of  remote  antiquity,  preserved  in 
the  earth,  or  in  its  waters,  fossilized  in  the  rock,  or?  engraved 
upon  stone  traced  by  the  ethnologist  and  archaeologist  in  the 
bones,  implements  or  structures  of  man,  or  by  the  linguist  in 
his  language  and  hieroglyphics,  then  this  author  has  lifted 
the  veil  of  mythical  antiquitjr  and  established  the  proposition 
that  there  once  existed  in  the  Atlantic  Ocean,  opposite  Spain 
and  Africa,  an  island  larger  than  England,  known  to  the 
ancient  world  as  Atlantis,  of  which  the  peaks  of  the  Azores 
are  all  that  remain.  That  this  island,  described  by  Plato  400 
years  before  Christ,  based  on  information  transmitted  by 


288  ATLANTIS    AND    AMERICA  — 

Solon,  who  visited  Egypt  and  received  knowledge  thereof 
from  the  lips  of  scholars  and  priests  who  kept  the  records  of 
the  temples  and  pyramids,  is  not  fable,  as  has  been  long  sup- 
posed, but  veritable  history.  That  from  its  shores  colonies 
were  planted  in  Europe  and  on  this  continent.  That  it  was 
the  true  Antediluvian  world,  the  Eden  of  the  human  race, 
and  from  which  came  the  traditions  of  all  nations.  That  the 
gods  and  goddesses  of  the  ancient  Greeks,  the  Phoenicians,  the 
Hindoos  and  Scandinavians  were  but  the  kings,  queens  and 
heroes  of  Atlantis,  and  that  the  acts  attributed  to  them  in 
mythology  are  a  confused  recollection  of  very  remote  histori- 
cal events.  That  Egypt  and  Peru  were  the  oldest  colonies  of 
Atlantis,  whose  religions  were  sun-worship — evidenced  by 
their  respective  monumental  remains,  which  are  alike  temples 
and  pyramids.  And  finally  that  Atlantis  perished  in  a  terri- 
ble convulsion  of  nature,  in  which  the  whole  island  sunk  in 
the  ocean  with  all  its  inhabitants — save  possibly  some  who 
escaped  in  ships — the  tidings  of  which  have  survived  to  our 
own  times,  and  form  the  flood  and  deluge  legends  of  both  the 
old  and  new  worlds. 

That  the  story  of  Atlantis  was  for  thousands  of  years 
regarded  as  a  fable  proves  nothing,  for  the  legends  of  the 
buried  cities  of  Pompeii  and  Herculaneum  were  deemed 
myths,  and  spoken  of  as  "the  fabulous  cities."  Nor  for  more 
than  2000  years  did  the  world  credit  the  account  of  Herodo- 
tus of  the  ancient  civilization  of  Chaldea  and  Egypt,  and  of 
the  fountains  of  the  Nile,  now  recently  rediscovered,  having 
been  lost  to  the  knowledge  of  the  world,  not  only  through  the 
entire  period  of  Roman  history,  but  also  that  dismal  thousand 
years  of  ecclesiastical  domination,  known  as  the  dark  ages. 
Who  but  till  recently  believed  that  Pharaoh  Necho's  expedi- 
tion circumnavigated  Africa  and  anticipated  Vasquez  de 
Gama  in  his  discovery  of  the  Cape  of  Good  Hope  by  more 
than  2000  years  ?  Who  of  us  to-day,  but  for  our  veneration 
for  the  Hebrew  record,  could  realize  the  fact  that  Solomon 


MYTHS  VERSUS  REALITIES.  289 

built  ships  at  Ezion  Geber  at  the  head  of  the  Red  Sea,  under 
the  shadow  of  Mount  Sinai,  that  made  voyages  to  our  now 
British  India,  and  returned  laden  with  sandal-wood,  peacocks, 
and  apes,  collected  on  the  coast  of  the  Decaan  and  from  the 
island  of  Ceylon — or  that  in  ages  long  before  Solomon,  in  the 
infancy  of  the  first  monarchy  of  the  Euphrates,  before  Baby- 
lon and  Nineveh,  a  merchant  marine  floated  on  the  Persian 
Gulf,  whose  keels  plowed  the  waters  of  China  and  Japan  and 
the  islands  of  the  sea  ? 

Figures  are  impotent  to  impress  upon  the  mind  a  con- 
sciousness of  great  periods  of  past  time.  We  look  upon  the 
mounds  of  Ohio  and  the  Mississippi  Valley,  or  travel  through 
the  dense  and  almost  impenetrable  forests  of  Central  and 
South  America,  and  suddenly  come  upon  a  broad  and  well 
paved  road,  but  over  which  in  places  trees  have  grown  for 
centuries.  Following  on,  the  traveler  comes  to  a  vast  city 
built  of  stone — splendid  places  and  aqueducts — an  immense 
but  deserted  city,  whose  magnificent  palaces  of  beautiful 
sculpturing  are  inhabited  only  by  poisonous  serpents  and  wild 
and  savage  beasts — streets  once  so  much  traveled  as  to  have 
worn  hollows  in  the  hard  stones,  are  now  trodden  only  by  the 
simple  and  unreflecting  Indian.  Of  this  deserted  home  of  a 
lost  race,  the  traveler  asks,  "  Who  and  When  ?  "  and  silence 
is  the  only  answer. 

The  sturdy  worker  in  the  copper  mines  of  Lake  Superior, 
finding  both  himself  and  his  vein  of  copper  growing  poorer 
day  by  day,  determines  to  seek  a  more  paying  claim  in  the  as 
yet  unexplored  portion  of  the  copper  country.  He  gathers 
his  kit  of  tools  together  and  starts,  and,  after  many  hard 
hours  travel  over  a  wild  and  rugged  country,  finds  a  region 
with  abundant  signs  of  copper,  and  where  seemingly  no  hu- 
man foot  has  trod  since  Creation's  dawn.  He  strikes  a  rich 
vein  and  goes  steadily  to  work  digging  and  blasting  his  way 
to  richer  portions,  when  suddenly,  right  in  the  richest  part,  he 
finds  his  lead  cut  off  by  what  looks  to  his  experienced  eye 
19 


290  ATLANTIS    AND    AMERICA 

marvelously  like  a  mining  shaft.  Amazedly  he  begins  to 
clear  out  of  the  pit  the  fallen  earth  and  debris  of  ages,  and 
the  daylight  thus  let  in  reveals  to  his  astonished  gaze  an  im- 
mense mass  of  copper  raised  some  distance  from  the  original 
bottom  of  the  pit  on  a  platform  of  logs,  while  at  his  feet  lie  a 
number  of  strange  stone  and  copper  implements  —  some  thin 
and  sharp  like  knives  and  hatchets,  others  huge  and  blunt  like 
mauls  and  hammers  —  all  being  left  in  such  a  manner  as 
though  the  workmen  had  but  just  gone  to  dinner,  and  might 
be  back  at  any  moment.  Bewildered,  he  ascends  to  the  sur- 
face and  looks  about  him.  He  sees  mounds  that  from  their 
positions  are  evidently  formed  from  the  refuse  of  the  pit,  but 
these  mounds  are  covered  with  gigantic  trees,  evidently 
the  growth  of  centuries  ;  and,  looking  still  closer,  he  sees  that 
these  trees  are  fed  from  the  decayed  ruins  of  trees  still  older — 
trees  that  have  sprung  up,  flourished,  grown  old,  and  died 
since  this  pit  was  dug  and  these  mounds  were  raised.  The 
more  he  thinks  of  the  vast  ages  that  have  elapsed  since  this 
pit  was  dug,  that  mass  of  copper  quarried  and  raised,  the 
more  confused  he  becomes  —  his  mind  cannot  grasp  this  im- 
mensity of  time.  Who  were  these  miners  but  the  colonists  of 
Peru  and  Mexico,  who  were  themselves  the  colonists  of  the 
lost  Atlanteans  ? 

But  what  did  Plato  sa}^?  "Among  the  great  deeds  of 
Athens,  of  which  recollection  is  preserved  in  our  books,  there 
is  one  that  should  be  placed  above  all  others.  Our  books  tell 
us  that  the  Athenians  destroyed  an  arnry  that  came  across 
the  Atlantic  Sea,  and  insolently  invaded  Europe  and  Asia, 
for  this  sea  was  then  navigable  ;  and  beyond  the  straits,  where 
you  place  the  pillars  of  Hercules,  was  an  immense  island, 
larger  than  Asia  (Minor)  and  Lybia  combined.  From  this 
island  one  could  pass  easily  to  other  islands,  and  thence 
to  the  continent  be3Tond.  The  sea  on  either  side  of  the  strait 
resembled  a  harbor  with  a  narrow  entrance,  but  there  is  a 
veritable  sea,  and  the  land  which  surrounds  it  is  a  veritable 


MYTHS  VERSUS  REALITIES.  291 

continent.  On  this  island  of  Atlantis  there  reigned  three 
kings  with  great  and  marvelous  power.  They  had  under 
their  domain  the  whole  of  Atlantis,  several  of  ocher  islands, 
and  part  of  the  continent.  At  one  time  their  power  ex- 
tended into  Europe  as  far  as  Tyrrhenia,  and  uniting  their 
whole  force  they  sought  to  destroy  our  country  at  a  blowr 
but  their  defeat  stopped  the  invasion,  and  gave  entire  freedom 
to  the  country  on  this  side  of  the  Pillars  of  Hercules.  After- 
wards, in  one  day  and  one  fatal  night,  there  came  mighty 
earthquakes  and  inundations  that  ingulfed  that  warlike  peo- 
ple. Atlantis  disappeared,  and  then  the  sea  became  inaccessi- 
ble on  account  of  the  vast  quantity  of  mud  that  the  ingulfed 
island  left  in  its  place." 

Such  a  catastrophe  is  not  improbable,  for  vast  lands  have 
gone  down  under  the  waters  within  historic  times.  The 
power  of  the  mysterious  earthquake  is  surpassing  great.  That 
of  Lisbon,  so  late  as  1755,  wiping  out  a  city  and  sixty  thou- 
sand people,  was  felt  from  Quebec  to  Calcutta.  The  memory 
of  the  calamities  of  nations  exist  forever,  transmitted  in  the 
legends  of  the  people.  Should  England  be  ingulfed  in  like 
manner,  the  legend  would  go  down  to  the  last  man  existing 
on  the  face  of  the  earth,  even  though  every  written  or 
printed  record  of  its  former  existence  should  be  obliterated 
at  the  same  time  from  the  archives  of  every  nation  on  the 
globe. 

We  have  changed  our  views  somewhat,  touching  the  state 
of  geographical  knowledge  in  Europe  400  years  ago  concern- 
ing a  continent,  and  islands  west  of  the  Pillars  of  Hercules, 
since  in  our  boyhood  we  were  told  of  the  wonderful  philo- 
sophic wisdom  which  could  make  an  egg  balance  itself  on  the 
little  end,  and  the  singular  inspiration  which  impelled  the 
enthusiastic  Genoese  to  solicit  at  the  Court  of  Ferdinand  and 
Isabella  three  little  ships,  that  he  might  go  sailing  over  the 
Atlantic  in  search  of  another  continent,  and  were  led  by  the 
histories  of  that  day  to  believe  that  all  the  world  but  Chris- 


292  ATLANTIS    AND    AMERICA  — 

topher  Columbus  looked  upon  his  mission  and  enterprise  as 
visionary  and  vain.  Such  views  of  history,  then  quite  uni- 
versal, were  impressed  upon  our  dawning  mind,  even  hard  by 
Dighton  Rock  and  its  Runic  inscriptions,  and  the  old  Scandi- 
navian mill  of  the  tenth  century,  now  so  interesting  to  the 
antiquary  and  the  summer  tourist  at  Newport. 

Later  years  the  glimmerings  of  history  discovered  in  the 
poems  and  Sagas  of  Iceland  have,  in  some  degree,  dispelled 
the  illusion,  and  it  is  now  pretty  well  understood  and  be- 
lieved that,  four  hundred  years  before  Columbus,  the  rude 
and  hardy  sailors  of  the  higher  latitudes  of  Europe  had  made 
voyages  to  New  Foundland  and  the  islands  and  coasts  of  what 
are  now  Massachusetts  and  Rhode  Island,  and  attempted  col- 
onization there.  It  is  perhaps  no  more  surprising  that  those 
early  Icelandic  colonies,  upon  a  bleak  coast  and  in  a  dense 
forest,  were  dissipated  and  destroyed  by  the  ancestors  of 
King  Philip,  than  that  some  of  the  English  colonies,  five  hun- 
dred years  later,  should  have  been  swept  from  Roanoke 
Island  and  the  coast  of  Virginia  by  the  savage  ancestors  of 
Pocahontas.  What  became  of  Virginia  Dare,  the  first-born 
white  child  in  the  Old  Dominion  ?  And  what  became  of  the 
children  that  saw  erected  and  played  around  that  mysterious 
structure  at  Newport  ?  Such  questions  are  as  yet  unanswer- 
able, and  will  be  solved  only  when  the  fate  of  the  mound 
builder  shall  be  disclosed.  The  impression  now  prevails  that 
in  1492,  and  for  many  years  prior  thereto,  it  was  firmly 
believed  in  Italy  and  Spain,  between  which  countries  and  the 
remotest  North  there  was,  and  had  been  for  centuries,  as  full 
and  free  intercourse,  commercial  and  otherwise,  as  prevails 
between  the  Northern  and  Southern  nationalities  of  Europe 
to-day,  that  the  form  of  the  earth  was  rotund,  and  that  there 
were  lands,  countries  and  peoples  on  the  opposite  side  of  the 
globe,  and,  in  fact,  that  land  had  been  discovered  beyond  the 
Atlantic  by  the  old  sea  kings  of  the  North. 

Ships  and  sailors  had  been  historically  known  in  the  wa- 


MYTHS  VERSUS  REALITIES.  293 

ters  of  the  Mediterranean  since  the  reign  of  Hiram  and  the 
misfortunes  of  Jonah.  The  ships  of  Solomon  had  plowed  the 
Red  Sea  and  the  waters  of  the  Indian  Ocean.  The  Phreni- 
cians  had  passed  beyond  the  Pillars  of  Hercules  to  the 
Azores  and  the  tin  mines  of  Britain.  Rome  had  great 
navies,  and  Paul  had  known  the  horrors  of  a  shipwreck. 
Such  history  was  as  familiar  in  the  days  of  Columbus  as 
to-day,  to  say  nothing  of  the  legends  which  attributed  to 
Hans  the  Carthagenian  the  circumnavigation  of  Africa.  It 
is  hardly  to  be  doubted  that,  for  ages  prior  to  Columbus, 
there  was  much  thought  and  reflection  among  men  concern- 
ing the  globe  upon  which  they  lived,  and  the  probabilities  of 
future  discoveries  of  land  in  the  remote  seas,  as  people  now 
have  regarding  the  possibility  of  finding  new  islands  in  the 
ocean  or  an  open  polar  sea  beyond  the  ice  mountains  of  the 
North.  Wilk's  discovery  of  an  Antarctic  Continent,  though 
less  important  than  the  discover}7  of  America,  was  rather 
astonishing  at  the  time,  considering  that  every  civilized 
nation  had  circumnavigated  the  globe  for  hundreds  of  years, 
but  were  till  then  ignorant  of  the  existence  of  that  valueless 
territory.  Yet  nations  were  as  great,  learning  .was  as  univer- 
sal, arts  were  as  flourishing  just  before  as  just  after  that 
event.  We  had  all  our  hackneyed  themes  to  boast  of —  the 
nineteenth  century  —  railroads,  the  telegraph  —  and  yet  were 
ignorant  of  the  existense  of  an  Antarctic  Continent.  When 
in  the  reign  of  Augustus  the  Greek  Strabo  wrote  the  geogra- 
phy of  the  world,  including  his  cosmography,  suggesting  the 
possibility  of  a  direct  passage  from  Spain  to  India,  he  de- 
clared doubtless  nothing  more  than  the  general  belief  of  his 
scholarly  cotemporaries,  when  he  wrote:  "  There  may  be  in  the 
same  temperate  zone  two,  and  indeed  more  inhabited  lands, 
especially  near  Thinae  or  Athens,  prolonged  into  the  Atlantic 
Ocean." 

This   was  fifteen  hundred   years  before  Columbus.     Is  it 
probable,  as  we  have  been  led  to  believe,  that  Columbus  was 


294  ATLANTIS    AND    AMERICA  — 

the  first  man  inspired  with  grand  geographical  ideas  ?  But 
all  such  questions,  which  heretofore  may  have  been  set- 
tled in  the  minds  of  careful  readers  and  critical  scholars,  are 
now  answered  for  the  general  reader  by  the  research  of  many 
modern  historians  and  scholars. 

So  interesting  and  wonderful  are  some  of  the  voices  of  an- 
tiquity, and  so  directly  do  they  point  to  the  discovery  of 
America,  that  we  cannot  refrain  from  referring  to  a  few  of 
the  more  significant  predictions  and  utterances.  The  Roman 
poet  Seneca  seems  to  have  been  the  first  to  point  the  index 
finger  to  an  undiscovered  world.  Young  classical  readers  will 
pardon  us  in  transcribing  the  original  words  of  the  ancient 
poet,  as  it  may  be  a  pleasure  to  compare  them  with  the  trans- 
lation of  Archbishop  Whatety  :  — 

"      *     *     *     *     venient  annis 
Secula  seris  quibus  Ocean  us 
Vincula  rerum  taxet,  et  ingens 
Pateat  tellus,  Tiphys  que  novos 
Detegat  orbes,  nee  sit  terris 
Ultima  Thule." 

Bacon  pronounced  these  words  a  prophecy  of  America. 
How  very  like  such  a  prophecy  may  be  judged  by  the  Arch- 
bishop's translation  :  "  There  shall  come  a  time  in  later  ages, 
when  ocean  shall  relax  his  chains  and  a  vast  continent  appear, 
and  a  pilot  shall  find  new  worlds,  and  Thule  shall  be  no 
more  earth's  bound." 

The  Statesman  Fox  alluded  to  the  prophecy  in  Seneca's 
•"  Medea  "  as  being  "  curious  indeed."  Irving  adopted  this 
verse  as  a  motto  on  the  title  page  to  his  "  Life  of  Columbus." 
There  are  copies  of  it  extant,  said  to  be  in  the  undoubted 
handwriting  of  Columbus ;  one  in  a  letter  to  Queen  Isabella, 
which  is  one  of  the  most  precious  autographs  in  the  world. 

In  the  centuries  between  Strabo  and  Columbus,  many 
writers  had  shadowed  forth  prophetic  conceptions  concern- 


MYTHS  VERSUS  REALITIES.  295 

ing  other  and  undiscovered  lands  and  countries.     The  Italian 
poet,  Petrarca,  writes  : 

"Of  far  off  nations  is  a  world  remote." 

But  the  fullest,  most  direct  and  interesting  of  all  the  so- 
oalled  prophecies  concerning  a  country  beyond  the  Pillars  of 
Hercules,  our  modern  Gibraltar,  is  that  of  another  Italian, 
Pulci,  who  died  five  years  before  Columbus  sailed,  so  that  he 
was  not  aided  by  the  suggestions  of  Columbus  or  any  other 
gentleman  seeking  to  get  a  contract  from  Ferdinand  and  Isa- 
bella to  furnish  to  Spain  a  new  continent,  with  all  the  modern 
improvements  on  the  shortest  notice,  but  the  visions  of  a 
thoughtful  and  philosophic,  as  well  as  practical  mind,  whose 
advanced  years  gave  him  "  mystical  lore,"  and  before  whose 
mind  was  cast  the  shadow  of  coming  events  :  — 

"  Know  that  this  theory  is  false :  his  bark 
The  daring  mariner  shall  urge  far  o'er 
The  western  wave,  a  smooth  and  level  plain, 
Albeit  the  earth  is  fashioned  like  a  wheel. 
.     Man  was  in  ancient  days  of  grosser  mould, 
And  Hercules  might  blush  to  learn  how  far 
Beyond  the  limits,  he  had  vainly  set, 
The  dullest  sea  boat  soon  shall  wing  her  way  ; 

Men  shall  descry  another  hemisphere, 

Since  to  one  common  center  all  things  tend ; 

So  earth,  by  curious  mystery  divine, 

Well  balanced,  hangs  amidst  the  starry  spheres. 

At  our  Antipodes  are  cities,  States, 

And  thronged  empires  ne'er  dreamed  of  yore. 

But  see,  the  sun  speeds  on  his  western  path 

To  glad  the  nations  with  expected  light." 

Our  own  historian,  Prescott,  was  the  first  to  call  attention 
to  this  remarkable  prophetic  testimony,  and  the  two  verses 
here  transcribed  are  his  own  translation.  Was  there  ever  a 
prophecy  so  suddenly  and  so  completely  fulfilled  ?  In  less 


296  ATLANTIS    AND    AMERICA  — 

than  five  years  from  the  death  of  the  poet-prophet,  Columbus- 
descried  another  hemisphere.  In  less  than  thirty  years  cities, 
States  and  empires  were  found  at  the  Antipodes,  and  Cortez 
despoiled  the  empire  of  Montezuma,  and  the  mail-clad  Pizarro 
slew  the  Peruvian  Inca  and  possessed  himself  of  temples  as 
rich  in  golden  vessels  as  Jerusalem,  and  an  empire  cotem- 
poraneous  with  that  of  the  Pharaohs.  These  prophecies,  if 
properly  so-called,  unlike  the  mystic  and  figurative  utterances 
of  the  prophets  of  Israel,  need  no  interpretation  and  explana- 
tion by  commentators  learned  in  the  Hebrew  and  Syriac 
tongues.  The  ancient  prophets  gave  no  utterances  which 
seem  so  positive  and  distinct,  save  perhaps  in  those  denunci- 
ations which  foretold  the  "cloud"  which  should  come  over 
Egypt,  and  her  utter  desolation,  and  the  destruction  which 
should  come  upon  commercial  Tyre,  and  make  her  but  "  the 
place  for  the  spreading  of  nets  in  the  midst  of  the  sea."  The 
period  of  sacred  prophecy  ceased  with  the  dawn  of  the  new 
dispensation.  The  oracles  which  gave  doubtful  and  deceptive 
responses  to  Grecian  and  Roman  generals,  ceased  to  be  con- 
sulted when  modern  history  began.  It  is  apparent,  we  think, 
to  common  understanding,  that  what  are  here  called  prophe- 
cies concerning  another  continent,  other  cities,  States  and  em- 
pires at  the  Antipodes,  were  but  the  conceptions  of  intelligent 
minds,  based  upon  common  reasonings  and  the  deductions  of 
history  and  past  experience.  Milton  expressed  the  idea  fully 
when  he  wrote : 

"That  old  experience  doth  attain 
To  something  like  prophetic  strain." 

The  ancient  prophecies,  which  foretold  another  world  be- 
yond the  Pillars  of  Hercules,  were,  to  the  mind  of  Columbus 
and  the  geographers  of  his  day,  associated  with  the  CathajT  of 
the  Orient,  with  its  fragrant  balms  and  spices,  with  which 
Europe  had  long  been  familiar,  not  only  by  her  ships  through 
the  Red  Sea  and  Indian  Ocean,  but  by  her  caravans  from  the 


MYTHS  VERSUS  REALITIES.  297 

Indies  and  from  Central  Asia.  Embassadors  from  Rome  and 
Constantinople  had  paid  court  to  Zenghis  Khan  on  the  very 
grounds  where  the  army  of  Russia  is  to-day  subduing  Kiva 
and  other  modern  Tartar  kingdoms.  Marco  Paulo  and  his 
mercantile  uncles  had  been  familiar  in  the  courts  of  the  Em- 
peror of  China,  and  the  Chinese  traveler  Kiouen-Thsang,  in 
the  seventh  century,  had  made  his  way  over  the  snowy  paths 
of  the  Himalayas,  twenty-three  thousand  feet  high,  to  visit 
Hindostan  and  learn  the  religion  of  Buddha,  and  carry  back 
the  elaborate  cultus  of  the  devotees  to  the  calm  and  reflective 
disciples  of  Confucius.  The  silks  of  China,  and  the  crape  of 
Canton,  adorned  the  persons  of  beautiful  princesses  and 
stately  matrons.  The  Chinese  fire-crackers  and  the  gorgeous 
paper  lanterns  were  as  familiar  in  Europe  in  the  days  of  Co- 
lumbus, as  they  are  now  to  our  juvenile  patriots,  or  to  suc- 
cessful politicians  who  assemble  to  celebrate  over  favorable 
election  returns. 

In  the  earliest  years  of  the  Colonial  settlements,  English 
poets  like  Chapman,  Herbert  and  Cowley,  and  New  Eng- 
landers  like  Morrill,  Ward  and  the  conscientious  Judge 
Sewell,  who  tried  and  condemned  the  Salem  witches,  but  who 
lived  to  groan  in  spirit  for  his  judicial  errors,  and  Thomas 
Brown,  in  the  reign  of  Charles  II.,  predicted  their  growth, 
power  and  civilization ;  and  a  little  later  still,  about  1726,  in 
the  reign  of  George  I.,  the  good  Bishop  Berkley,  who  had 
among  his  witty  and  learned  friends  Addison,  Swift  and  Poper 
conceived  the  project  of  educating  the  Aborigines  of  America^ 
and  converting  them  to  Christianity,  by  a  college  to  be 
erected  in  the  "  Summer  Islands,"  otherwise  called  the  "Isles 
of  Bermuda."  The  Ministers  of  State  endorsed  the  enterprise, 
and  promised  him  twenty  thousand  pounds  to  promote  what 
the  King  called  "  so  pious  an  undertaking."  Inspired  with 
the  grandest  emotions,  and  looking  into  the  future  like  the 
prophets  of  old,  he  wrote  that  truly  prophetic  poem,  the  last 
verse  of  which  is  so  familiar  to  Americans :  — 


298  ATLANTIS    AND    AMERICA  — 

"  Westward  the  course  of  Empire  takes  its  way  ; 

The  first  four  acts  already  passed. 
The  fifth  shall  close  the  drama  with  the  day; 

Time's  noblest  offspring  is  the  last." 

Turning  away  from  his  home  and  deanery,  and  refusing  a 
mitre  offered  him  by  the  Queen,  he  set  sail  for  Rhode  Island, 
•"  which  lay  nearest  to  Bermuda,"  according  to  the  geograph- 
ical inexactness  of  that  day,  where  he  arrived  in  January, 
1729.  Newport,  at  that  time,  contained  some  six  thousand 
inhabitants,  and,  according  to  the  bishop's  quaint  description, 
was  one  of  the  "  most  flourishing  places  in  America  for  biz- 
ness."  The  pretensions  of  the  Dutch  settlement  of  New  Am- 
sterdam to  rival  Newport  as  a  great  commercial  city,  was  one 
of  the  jokes  of  the  day  among  the  shippers  and  West  India 
traders  of  Newport.  Bishop  Berkley  settled  on  a  farm  on 
this  beautiful  island,  which  he  describes  in  his  letters  as 
"pleasantly  laid  out  in  hills  and  vales  and  rising  grounds, 
with  plenty  of  excellent  springs  and  fine  rivulets,  and  many 
delightful  landscapes  of  rocks  and  promontories  and  adjacent 
lands.  It  is  pretty  and  pleasantly  situated.  I  was  never 
more  surprised  than  at  the  first  sight  of  the  town  and  its 
harbor." 

Here  the  good  bishop  lived  nearty  three  years,  waiting  for 
the  king's  ministers  to  send  the  mone}^  to  build  the  Indian 
college.  The  money  did  not  come,  and  the  bishop  was 
admonished  by  his  experience  of  the  folly  of  putting  faith  in 
princes.  He  preached  in  Newport,  and  meditated  there,  if  he 
•did  not  compose,  "The  Minute  Philosopher."  Bestowing 
upon  Yale  College,  then  but  a  few  years  old,  eight  hundred 
volumes,  and  leaving  an  infant  son  buried  in  the  churchyard 
of  Trinity,  he  returned  to  England. 

How  few,  of  all  who  are  familiar  with  the  verse  which 
declares  "  the  course  of  empire,"  realize  that  one  hundred  and 
fifty  years  ago  its  famous  author  was  a  dweller  in  our  own 
fashionable  Newport,  delighting  in  the  beauty  of  its  land- 


MYTHS  VERSUS  REALITIES.  299 

scapes,  preaching  to  its  people  and  weeping  at  the  grave  of 
his  infant  son.  That  little  grave  in  Trinity  churchyard 
should  be  the  Mecca  of  every  visitor  to  that  lovely  island,  and 
the  shrine  of  every  American  who  delights  to  repeat  the 
prophetic  words  of  Berkley,  to  whom  Pope  ascribed  "  every 
virtue  under  heaven." 

Passing  over,  as  we  must,  the  prophetic  utterances  of  the 
men  of  the  Revolutionary  period,  like  Franklin,  Jefferson  and 
Adams,  as  well  as  English  statesmen  and  writers  of  the  same 
period,  like  Walpole,  Hartley,  Adam  Smith,  Canning  and 
others,  we  note  but  a  single  name,  though  all  are  rich  in 
prophecies,  the  accomplished  Oriental  scholar,  Sir  William 
Jones,  whose  well-known  ode,  it  is  said,  was  inspired  by  his 
sympathy  with  the  American  cause  :  — 

What  constitutes  a  State? 

Not  high-raised  battlement  on  labored  mound, 
Thick  wall  or  moated  gate  ; 

No.     Men,  high-minded  men, 
Men,  who  their  duties  know  and  knowing  dare  maintain ; 

Prevent  the  long-aimed  blow, 
And  crush  the  tyrant  while  they  rend  the  chains ; 

These  constitute  a  State. 

Being  so  near  our  Centennial,  we  will  not  pass  over  what 
the  plow-boy  poet,  Burns,  said  in  a  letter  in  1788,  where  he 
prophetically  alludes  to  American  Independence :  "  I  will 
not,  I  cannot,  enter  into  the  merits  of  the  cause,  but  I  dare 
say  the  American  Congress,  in  1776,  will  be  allowed  to  be  as 
able  and  as  enlightened  as  the  English  Convention  was  in 
1688 ;  and  that  their  posterity  will  celebrate  the  centenary  of 
their  deliverance  from  us,  as  duly  and  sincerely  as  we  do  ours 
from  the  oppressive  measures  of  the  house  of  Stuart." 

Of  all  who  have  written  interestingly  and  prophetically 
concerning  America,  none  have  done  so  more  pleasantly  and 
hopefulty  than  French  statesmen  and  publicists,  near  the 
period  of  our  Revolution  and  afterwards.  The  Marquis 


300  ATLANTIS    AND    AMERICA  — 

Montcalm,  who  fell  on  the  heights  of  Quebec,  in  the  same 
battle  with  his  great  antagonist,  Wolfe,  in  1759,  just  on  the 
eve  of  the  battle  wrote  to  the  French  Minister  :  "  They  (the 
English)  are  in  a  condition  to  give  us  battle,  which  I  cannot 
refuse,  and  which  I  cannot  hope  to  gain.  The  event  must 
decide.  But  of  one  thing  be  certain,  that  I  probabl}"  shall 
not  survive  the  loss  of  the  Colony."  This  was  a  sad  forbod- 
ing  of  the  fate  of  Canada  and  his  own.  He  had  the  year  pre- 
vious written  :  "  That  these  informations,  which  I  every  day 
receive,  confirm  me  in  my  opinion  that  England  will  one  day 
lose  her  colonies  on  the  American  Continent."  A  prophecy 
fulfilled  in  less  than  twenty  years. 

The  Duke  of  Choisuil,  a  brilliant  French  diplomatist,  and  a 
man  of  great  intelligence  and  foresight,  as  early  as  1763,  fore- 
saw the  separation  of  America  from  England.  The  Abbe 
Raynal  said  :  "  The  new  hemisphere  must  some  day  detach 
itself  from  the  old.  Europe  may  some  day  find  its  masters 
in  its  children."  Galiani,  in  a  letter  to  Madame  d'Epinay,  in 
1776,  wrote  :  "  That  the  epoch  had  come  of  the  total  fall  of 
Europe,  and  of  transmigration  to  America.  All  here  turns 
into  rottenness — religion,  laws,  arts,  sciences — all  hastens  to 
renew  itself  in  America.  I  have  preached  it  for  more  than 
twenty  years,  and  I  have  constantly  seen  my  prophecies  come 
to  pass."  He  pleasantly  and  playfully  adds  :  "  Therefore  do- 
not  buy  your  house  in  the  Chausee  d'Antin  ;  you  must  buy 
it  in  Philadelphia."  De  Tocqueville,  the  publicist,  with  whom 
Mr.  Sumner  was  personally  acquainted  and  had  invited  in  his 
castle  home  in  Normandy,  had  faith  in  American  institutions, 
and  foresaw  the  future  greatness  of  this  country  :  "  The 
Americans  of  the  United  States,  whatever  they  do,  will  be- 
come one  of  the  greatest  people  on  the  earth  ;  they  will  cover 
with  their  off-shoots  almost  all  North  America.  The  conti- 
nent which  they  inhabit  is  their  domain ;  it  cannot  escape 
them."  Count  Aranda,  the  Spanish  statesman  and  diplomat- 
ist, is  perhaps  the  least  known  in  this  country  of  all  our  for- 


MYTHS  VERSUS  REALITIES.  301 

•eign  friends  in  the  days  of  the  Revolution.  He  was  the  min- 
ister of  the  Spanish  king  at  the  court  of  Paris,  and  joined 
with  France  in  the  treaty  acknowledging  the  independence  of 
the  United  States.  He  was  an  admirable  character.  In  a 
private  letter  to  his  sovereign,  he  advised  him  that  the  Fed- 
eral Republic  was  "  born  a  pigmy,  but  the  day  will  come  when 
it  will  be  a  giant,  even  a  colossus,  formidable  in  these  coun- 
tries." 

There  is  one  other  prophecy,  so  sad  and  solemn  that  we 
cannot  resist  the  temptation  to  reproduce  it  here,  as  it  is  by 
no  means  familiar  to  general  readers.  It  is  from  Alaman, 
the  historian  of  Mexico.  It  is  his  valedictory,  and  in  it  he 
consigns  the  present  races  of  his  country  to  oblivion  :  "  Mex- 
ico will  be,  without  doubt,  a  land  of  prosperity  from  its  nat- 
ural advantages,  but  it  will  not  be  so  for  the  races  which  now 
inhabit  it.  As  it  seemed  the  destiny  of  the  people  who 
established  themselves  therein  at  different  epochs  to  perish 
from  the  face  of  it,  leaving  hardly  a  memory  of  their  exist- 
ence ;  even  as  the  nation  which  built  the  edifices  of  Palenque, 
and  those  which  we  admire  in  the  peninsula  of  Yucatan,  was 
destroyed  without  its  being  known  what  it  was  or  how  it  dis- 
appeared ;  even  as  the  Toltecs  perished  at  the  hands  of  barbar- 
ous tribes  coming  from  the  North,  no  record  remaining  but 
the  pyramids  of  Cholulu  and  Teotihuacan  ;  and  finally,  even 
as  the  ancient  Mexican  fell  beneath  the  power  of  the  Span- 
iards, the  country  gaining  infinitely  by  this  change  of  domin- 
ion, but  its  ancient  masters  being  overthrown  ;  so  likewise  its 
present  inhabitants  shall  be  ruined  and  hardly  obtain  the 
compassion  they  have  merited,  and  the  Mexican  nation  of  our 
days  shall  have  applied  to  it  what  a  celebrated  Latin  poet 
said  of  the  most  famous  personages  of  Roman  history  —  stat 
magni  nominis  umbra  —  nothing  more  remains  than  the 
shadow  of  a  name  illustrious  in  another  time."  And  so  the 
prophetic  historian  of  Mexico  leaves  wide  the  door  for  "  Man- 
ifest Destinv." 


302       ATLANTIS  AND  AMERICA MYTHS  VS.    REALITIES. 

The  star  of  empire  is  ever  westward.  The  utterances  of 
the  prophets  are  being  fulfilled.  Egypt  held  within  her  tem- 
ples the  knowledge  of  Atlantis,  the  geographers  and  poets  of 
Greece  and  Rome  foreshadowed  America,  and  the  statesmen 
of  Europe  predicted  the  ultimate  grandeur  of  the  colonies, 
and  the  glorious  destiny  of  the  United  States.  The  Rosetta 
Stone  has  been  uncovered,  and  the  key  that  unlocks  the  ob- 
livion of  the  Mound  Builders  has  been  found. 


RECOLLECTIONS    OF    WEBSTER    AND    CHOATE.  303- 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  WEBSTER  AND  CHOATE. 


A  WAY  in  the  mountain  forests  of  Vermont,  in  the  cold 
•^^  and  dreary  winter  of  1830,  the  name  of  Daniel  Webster 
was  first  impressed  upon  my  boyish  understanding.  The  oc- 
casion was  the  reading,  one  evening,  to  my  father,  by  an  elder 
sister,  by  the  light  of  a  tallow  candle,  before  the  great  stone 
fire-place  of  blazing  wood,  from  the  fresh  and  damp  columns  of 
The  Vermont  Watchman  and  State  Gazette,  of  which  Ezekiel 
P.  Walton,  the  first,  was  editor  and  proprietor,  the  celebrated 
reply  of  Webster  to  Hayne.  Too  young  to  appreciate  the 
occasion,  the  subject,  or  the  man,  the  indelible  and  lasting 
impression  of  the  scene  was  made  more  upon  my  heart  than 
upon  my  mind,  lay  reason  of  the  quivering  lips  and  tears  of 
admiration  of  my  father.  I  afterwards  became  to  know  that 
such  was  invariably  his  mode  of  manifesting  his  approval  and 
delight,  when  noble  thoughts  were  expressed  in  forcible  and 
eloquent  words.  I  was  for  the  time,  however,  agonized  for 
what  I  supposed  was  a  source  of  sorrow  and  distress  to  my 
father ;  and  it  was  some  years  before  I  discovered,  as  I  subse- 
quently did,  when  in  maturer  years  I  read  the  speech,  and 
found  the  cause  of  his  tears  in  the  power  of  a  great  argu- 
ment, and  the  splendor  of  the  diction  of  a  renowned  speech, 
for  which  he  had  no  words  potent  enough  to  express  his  un- 
bounded admiration  —  though  I  remember  him  to  have  said, 
at  the  conclusion  of  the  reading  —  -'Webster  is  the  greatest 
man  in  America  ! " 

In  the  summer  of  the  same  year  was  the  celebrated  trial  of 
the  two  brothers  Knapp,  charged  with  one  Crowningshield, 
who  suicided  in  jail,  with  the  murder  of  Capt.  Joseph  White,  a. 


304      RECOLLECTIONS  OF  WEBSTER  AND  CHOATE. 

wealthy  citizen,  at  Salem,  Massachusetts,  in  which  case  Mr. 
Webster  was  retained  by  the  friends  of  the  murdered  man  to 
assist  the  prosecuting  attorney,  and  in  which  he  made  that 
celebrated  and  memorable  argument  to  the  jury,  the  perora- 
tion of  which  became  early  incorporated  into  the  reading 
books  for  schools  and  in  works  on  elocution,  as  an  inimitable 
specimen  of  American  oratory.  In  this  way  did  we  read  him 
for  a  few  seasons,  and  as  years  advanced  us  to  the  shady  side 
of  boyhood,  we  began  to  read  annually  his  speeches  in  Con- 
gress, and  occasionally  getting  glimpses  of  steel  engravings 
which  illustrated  the  grandeur  of  his  head  and  face,  it  being 
many  years  before  the  wonders  of  photography  had  been  dis- 
covered, and  long  before  the  people  obtained  instruction  and 
delight  in  the  elaborately  illustrated  journals  of  later  days. 
Then  as  years  of  manhood  approached,  and  the  fulness  of 
his  great  mental  powers  was  reached,  and  his  fame  had  risen 
to  its  zenith,  we  had,  probably,  the  like  and  no  better  concep- 
tion of  the  great  statesman  than  rural  people  in  general  who 
had  never  seen  and  heard  him.  Young  men  of  the  rural  dis- 
trict who  had  read  and,  perhaps,  committed  to  memory,  for 
school  and  academic  exercises,  the  peroration  of  the  Salem 
murder  address  to  the  jury,  and  pondered  upon  expressions 
therein,  like  "the  grim  visage  of  Moloch,"  "  murder  will  out," 
and  "  suicide  is  confession  " — the  discourse  on  the  simultane- 
ous death  of  Adams  and  Jefferson — the  reply  to  Hayne — the 
Pilgrims  at  Plymouth  Rock,  and  the  Bunker  Hill  monu- 
ment address,  ever  aspired  to  the  felicity,  which  would  come, 
as  they  thought,  in  beholding  and  hearing  the  great  Ameri- 
can statesman.  The  boon  was  granted  to  many  during  his 
long  public  career — yet  we  have  heard  not  a  few  intelligent 
and  some  prominent  citizens  of  more  than  one  city  and  State, 
as  long  ago  as  when  he  was  laid  in  his  tomb,  lament  that  it 
had  never  fallen  to  their  happy  lot  to  hear  or  look  upon  the 
godlike  Webster. 

Eighteen  years  elapsed  from  the  time  when  I  was  a  child, 


RECOLLECTIONS    OF    WEBSTER    AND    CHOATE.  305 

and  my  father,  in  his  exuberant  admiration  of  the  statesman's 
reply  to  Hayne,  pronounced  him  the  greatest  man  in  America, 
before  the  writer  had  the  gratification  of  seeing  and  hearing 
Mr.  Webster.  It  was  Mr.  Webster's  custom,  established  from 
the  time  of  his  election  as  Senator  of  the  United  States  for 
Massachusetts,  to  annually  pay  in  person  his  respects  to  the 
Legislature,  at  some  time  when  at  home  from  Washington, 
and  to  drop  in  upon  the  body  quietly  and  unannounced,  and 
sit  for  a  short  time  on  the  elevated  area  in  front  of  the 
Speaker,  and,  facing  the  assembly,  attentively  listen  to  its 
proceedings.  His  presence,  however,  never  escaped  immedi- 
ate notice.  Business  was  generally  disposed  of  ve^  quickly, 
.and  then  some  member  would  move  a  recess,  to  enable  mem- 
bers to  pay  their  respects  personally  to  Mr.  Webster.  The 
time  was  generally  devoted  to  hand  shaking ;  all  or  nearly 
every  member  availing  himself  of  the  honor,  each  being  intro- 
duced by  name  by  the  Speaker,  and  the  greeting  was  most 
cordial  and  graceful. 

It  was  at  the  legislative  session  of  1848  that  the  writer 
first  saw  Mr.  Webster,  when,  in  pursuance  of  his  long  ob- 
served custom,  he  paid  his  annual  visit.  He  came  in  one 
morning  with  a  personal  friend,  one  of  the  Boston  members, 
and  was  conducted  to  a  chair  upon  the  dais  in  front  of 
the  Speaker.  So  quietly  had  he  come  that  but  few  eyes 
other  than  th.e  Speaker,  Mr.  Francis  B.  Crowningshield,  had 
observed  him.  He  probably  had  anticipated  the  call.  The 
Speaker  and  Mr.  Webster  greeted  each  other  by  a  bow  of 
Tecognition,  when  the  latter  seated  himself  facing  the  body  of 
the  House.  No  sooner  had  he  raised  his  great  eyes  and  turned 
his  solemn  countenance  to  survey  the  body,  than  he  was 
recognized  by  nearly  every  member,  and  "Webster"  was 
soon  whispered  from  the  lips  of  all.  A  few  moments  time 
were  devoted  ostensibly  to  the  disposition  of  business  on 
the  table,  but  more  in  reality  for  the  purpose  of  giving  the 
•distinguished  visitor  a  little  time  to  rest,  after  ascending  the 
20 


306      RECOLLECTIONS  OF  WEBSTER  AND  CHOATE. 

long  flights  of  steps  from  Beacon  street  to  the  great  hall. 
At  a  suitable  moment  some  member  made  a  motion  to  take 
a  recess,  to  enable  the  members  to  pay  their  respects  to  Dan- 
iel Webster.  An  hour  or  more  was  spent  in  a  personal  intro- 
duction, by  the  Speaker,  of  every  member,  the  visitor  taking 
each  by  the  hand,  and  it  was  surprising  how  many  he  had 
some  knowledge  of,  whom  he  had  never  seen,  and  seeming  to 
have  some  acquaintance  in  every  town  or  district  who,  per- 
haps, had  been  a  member  in  other  years,  about  whom  he 
would  inquire  of  the  member,  and  send  some  pleasant  word 
or  his  personal  regards,  and  to  all  he  gave  a  generous  and 
fatherly  greeting.  We  remember  one  gentleman  some  fifty 
years  old,  who  was  wholly  unknown,  but  of  whose  name,  when 
announced,  Mr.  Webster  said  :  "  That  name  has  been  familiar 
to  me  from  my  bo}*hood."  The  member  said  :  "  I  am  grati- 
fied to  know  you.  remember  the  name,  for  the  great  pride  of 
my  life  has  been  that  I  was  born  in  the  same  town  where  Dan- 
iel Webster  was  born  —  Salisbury,  New  Hampshire  —  my 

father  was ,  whose  farm  joined  your  father's,  but  I  was 

born  after  you  left."  This  statement  broke  up  the  fountain 
of  affection  and  memory.  Mr.  Webster  grasped  him  by  both 
hands  —  his  chin  quivered,  and  the  tears  from  his  great  ox 
eyes  trickled  down  his  face,  and  he  stood  looking  at  him  for 
a  moment  unable  to  utter  a  word  :  recovering  himself  a  little, 

he  said :     "  Grod  bless  you,  the  son  of ,  my  father's  good 

neighbor  and  life-long  friend."  It  was  an  affecting  scene  and 
a  grand  spectacle.  The  balance  of  the  hand  shaking  being  con- 
cluded the  members  took  their  seats,  and  Mr.  Webster  thanked 
them  for  the  opportunit}^  granted  him  of  taking  them  by  the 
hand.  Being  invited  to  extend  his  remarks,  he  made  a  brief 
address  upon  general  topics  reviewed  the  labors  of  Con- 
gress, then-  in  session,  up  to  that  time  the  diplomatic  relations 
with  foreign  governments,  and  the  state  of  public  affairs  gen- 
erally all  in  the  most  plain,  simple  and  unaffected  style  ; 
but  it  was  like  holding  the  mirror  up  to  nature  —  the  picture 


RECOLLECTIONS    OF    WEBSTER    AND    CHOATE.  307 

was  perfect  and  apparent  to  the  eye  and  understanding. 
Then  he  bade  them  farewell  and  retired.  As  he  passed  slowly 
up  the  aisle,  the  members  rose  to  their  feet  and  stood  in 
silence  till  he  had  passed  into  the  corridors.  Olympian 
Jove  ! 

"The  heavens  attentive  trembled  as  he  spoke." 

A  few  days  afterwards,  and  while  he  was  remaining  in  the 
city,  he  was  retained  to  address  a  Legislative  Committee, 
which  had  under  consideration  the  application  of  parties 
whose  scheme  involved  the  filling  of  some  portion  of  Boston 
harbor  and  thereby  to  create  territory  for  building,  railroad 
and  other  purposes,  but  which  also  involved  the  destruction 
of  some  ancient  docks,  wharves  and  landing  places,  and  the 
extension  of  the  dock  lines  further  into  the  harbor.  The  pro- 
ject was  earnestly  protested  against  by  the  commercial  and 
shipping  interest.  Mr.  Webster  represented  the  "  solid  men 
of  Boston  "  in  opposition  to  the  grant  of  power.  The  com- 
mittee met  in  the  great  hall  of  the  House  of  Representatives 
one  afternoon  to  hear  counsel  upon  either  side,  but,  more 
especially,  at  that  session  to  listen  to  Mr.  Webster.  The 
meeting  of  the  committee  had  been  announced  in  the  morning 
papers,  and  when  the  members  thereof  had  assembled,  the 
Legislative  Hall  was  crowded  with  representatives  and  other 
spectators,  nearly  half  of  whom  were  ladies  —  the  wives  and 
daughters  of  senators,  representatives  and  of  distinguished 
Bostonians.  This  last  portion  of  the  audience  I  believe  to  be 
peculiarly  a  Boston  characteristic.  I  have  never  seen  the 
like  anywhere  else.  Thirty  ^years  ago  it  was  a  pleasant  cus- 
tom, exhibiting  commendable  taste  and  evincing  high  mental 
status,  when  ladies,  by  their  presence,  paid  deference  to  emi- 
nent statesmen,  advocates  and  orators  in  legislative  halls,  in 
the  courts  and  on  the  platform.  Whenever  the  occasion  was 
announced  in  advance,  that  Webster,  Choate,  Phillips,  Ran- 
toul,  Dana  or  Andrew  were  to  speak,  they  were  invariably 


308      RECOLLECTIONS  OF  WEBSTER  AND  CHOATE. 

honored  by  hundreds  of  the  elite  of  the  ladies  of  the  city — 
the  beaut}r,  grace  and  culture  of  Boston. 

Mr.  Webster  addressed  the  committee  slowly,  gravely, 
solemnl}'.  He  was  depressed  with  sadness  of  heart,  as  the 
remains  of  his  second  son,  Major  Edward  Webster,  who  fell 
in  the  service  of  his  country  in  the  war  with  Mexico,  were  ex- 
pected to  arrive  in  a  few  days,  being  then  enroute  from  that 
country;  and  his  beloved  daughter  Julia,  Mrs.  Appleton, 
being  hard  by  the  door  of  death  from  consumption.  His 
speech  embraced  a  general  running  history  of  ships,  harbors, 
and  the  commercial  marine  of  cities  of  Europe  and  America, 
and  especially  the  policy  of  the  State  and  the  merchants  of 
Boston,  touching  expenditures  and  improvements  to  enlarge 
the  area  and  increase  the  depth  of  the  waters  in  the  harbor. 
His  statements  were  clear,  strong  and  convincing — nothing  of 
embellishment,  or  anything  simulating  what  is  ordinarily  called 
eloquence — but  plain,  sensible  business  talk — so  clear  and 
explicit  in  both  ideas  and  words,  that  a  bright  boy  listening 
thereto  could  for  a  long  time  thereafter  restate  the  points  of 
his  argument  of  an  hour's  length,  and  almost  in  his  identical 
words,  so  thoroughly  did  he  impress  the  understanding  of  his 
hearers.  So  sad  were  the  circumstances  under  which  he 
spoke,  that  we  can  recall  but  a  single  remark  that  brought  a 
smile  to  any  countenance.  Complimenting  the  old  merchants 
of  Boston,  and  those  who  went  down  to  the  sea  in  ships,  that 
did  business  in  great  waters,  whom  he  knew  when  he  came  to 
Boston  a  generation  before,  he  said  it  was  their  policy,  and 
the  policy  of  Massachusetts  then,  to  preserve,  protect,  widen 
and  deepen  the  ancient,  renowned  and  historical  harbor,  to 
meet  the  necessities  and  keep  pace  with  the  growing  and  ad- 
vancing commerce  of  the  city,  the  commonwealth  and  of  New 
England— and  standing,  if  possible,  a  little  more  erect,  and 
with  a  countenance  expressive  of  mingled  earnestness  and 
pleasantry,  he  said  in  conclusion,  "  Gentlemen,  if  such  is  not 
the  policy  of  Massachusetts  now,  then  I  will  go  back  to  New 


RECOLLECTIONS    OF    WEBSTER    AND    CHOATE.  309 

Hampshire."  Had  any  other  than  Mr.  Webster  made  a  simi- 
lar remark,  there  would  have  seemed  nothing  therein  particu- 
larly noteworthy,  or  to  create  a  smile,  but  when  coming  from 
the  great  idol  of  Massachusetts,  who  had  lived  in  and  loved 
and  served  the  State  for  33  years,  the  foremost  statesman  of 
the  country,  this  single  pleasantry  and  only  facetious  utter- 
ance could  not  fail  of  creating  among  the  great  audience  of 
ladies  and  gentlemen  an  audible  smile,  softened,  if  not  wholly 
subdued,  by  the  graceful  waving  of  handkerchiefs. 

In  a  few  days  the  sad  opportunity  was  afforded  us  of  con- 
stituting one  of  a  great  assembly  of  people  that  attended  the 
funeral  ceremonies  from  the  residence  of  Mr.  Paige,  Mr.  Web- 
ster's brother-in-law,  on  Summer  street,  and  at  the  venerable 
ancient  Church  on  the  corner  of  the  same  street  and  the  Com- 
mon, in  the  vaults  of  which  the  remains  of  Major  Webster  were 
temporarily  placed  to  await  the  completion  of  the  family 
tomb  at  Marshfield.  Here  we  saw  the  great  statesman — the 
affectionate  father — bowed  in  parental  sorrow,  and  tears  drop 
unbidden  from  that  wonderfully  noble  and  godlike  counte- 
nance. It  seemed  like  tears  from  the  statue  of  Jupiter. 

We  never  saw  Mr.  Webster  but  once  afterwards,  and  that  was 
at  Springfield,  where  he  dined  at  the  Massasoit  House,  and  was 
met  and  greeted  by  George  Ashmun,  for  whom  Mr.  Webster 
had  special  regard  for  his  once  very  marked  friendly  service 
on  the  floor  of  Congress.  He  was  then  on  his  way  from 
Washington  to  Boston  in  company  with  Mr.  Paige  and  a  com- 
mittee which  bore  the  resolutions  and  the  invitation  of  his 
friends  for  his  final  reception  and  speech  in  Fanueil  Hall, 
when  its  doors  were  unbarred  and,  on  "  golden  hinges  turn- 
ing," were  flung  wide  open  to  her  guest  by  the  hand  and 
heart  of  Boston,  as  they  were  wont  to  be  in  the  days  of  glory, 
dominion  and  power  of  the  Whig  party.  It  was  our  last  look 
upon  the  renowned  American  statesman — the  last  view  of 
that  majestic  form — that  matchless  dome — the  last  look  into 
those  great  round  sad  eyes — that  wonderful  and  ever  to  be 


310      RECOLLECTIONS  OF  WEBSTER  AND  CHOATE. 

remembered  countenance  of  Daniel  Webster,  familiar  in  living 
realit}7  to  three  generations,  and  transmitted  to  the  fourth  in 
perfect  semblance  and  accuracy  in  the  copies  of  a  hundred 
artists. 

While  we  have  in  a  later  and  more  appreciative  day  read 
the  great  legal  arguments — public  and  literary  orations  and 
addresses — diplomatic  correspondence  and  State  papers  of  Mr. 
Webster,  and  contemplated  them  and  his  sublime  character 
as  lawyer,  statesman,  diplomat  and  man,  we  have,  if  possible, 
a  greater  admiration  for  the  grandeur  of  the  individual  man — 
his  great  heart,  generous  impulses  and  affectionate  spirit, 
than  for  all  else.  His  love  of  the  memory  of  his  father, 
mother,  brothers  and  sisters,  surpasses  all.  It  is  a  cold,  un- 
sympathetic and  unappreciative  heart  and  mind  that  .  can 
read  without  emotion  of  his  tears  of  gratitude  and  sadness  no 
less,  when  in  the  bleak  and  snowy  New  Hampshire  winter,  a 
lad,  his  father  in  his  embarrassed  condition  announced  his 
purpose  of  making  the  sacrifice  to  give  him  a  collegiate  edu- 
cation— his  affectionate  regard  for  his  brother  Ezekiel,  who 
was  yet  toiling  on  the  granite  farm,  but  subsequently  famous 
lawyer — those  dear  sisters  who  came  to  such  early  graves — 
that  noble  mother  who  sacrificed  so  much  for  her  children — 
the  old  farm  in  Salisbury — the  elm  tree  by  the  well — "  the 
old  oaken  bucket"  that  hung  therein — the  neighbors  of  his 
father — the  boys  with  whom  he  played — the  old  teachers  he 
remembered  and  wrote  to  and  placed  in  position  when  he  was 
famous  and  in  power,  equal,  if  they  do  not  surpass,  in  our 
estimation,  those  qualities  of  statesmanship  possessed  by  him 
when,  52  years  ago,  my  father  tearfully  pronounced  him  the 
greatest  man  in  America. 

After  the  lapse  of  three  decades,  we  are  more  and  more 
impressed  with  the  beauty  of  that  opening  paragraph  in 
Choate's  eulogy  delivered  at  his  Alma  Mater,  which  some  one 
pronounced  the  most  felicitous  in  the  English  language  :  "It 
would  be  a  strange  neglect  of  a  beautiful  and  approved  cus- 


RECOLLECTIONS    OF    WEBSTER    AND    CHOATE.  311 

torn  of  the  schools  of  learning,  and  of  one  of  the  most  appro- 
priate of  the  offices  of  literature,  if  the  college  in  which  the 
intellectual  life  of  Daniel  Webster  began,  and  to  which  his 
name  imparts  charm  and  illustration,  should  give  no  formal 
expression  to  her  grief  in  the  common  sorrow  ;  if  she  should 
not  draw  near,  of  the  most  sad,  in  the  procession  of  the  be- 
reaved, to  the  tomb  at  the  sea,  nor  find,  in  all  her  classic 
shades,  one  affectionate  and  grateful  leaf  to  set  in  the  garland 
with  which  they  have  bound  the  brow  of  her  child,  the 
mightiest  departed.  Others  mourn  and  praise  him  by  his 
more  distant  and  more  general  titles  to  fame  and  remem- 
brance ;  his  supremacy  of  intellect,  his  statesmanship  of  so 
many  years,  his  eloquence  of  reason  and  of  the  heart,  his  love 
of  country,  incorruptible,  conscientious,  and  ruling  every  hour 
and  act ;  that  greatness  combined  of  genius,  of  character,  of 
manner,  of  place,  of  achievement,  which  was  just  now  among 
us,  and  is  not,  and  yet  lives  still  and  evermore.  You  come, 
his  cherished  mother,  to  own  a  closer  tie,  to  indulge  one  emo- 
tion more  personal  and  more  fond, — grief  and  exultation  con- 
tending for  mastery,  as  in  the  bosom  of  the  desolated  parent, 
whose  tears  could  not  hinder  him  from  exclaiming,  'I  would 
not  exchange  my  dead  son  for  any  living  one  of  Christen- 
dom.' " 

The  same  }-ear  that  first  dawned  upon  our  mind  from  per- 
sonal observation  the  living  reality  of  Daniel  Webster,  opened 
up  to  us  a  knowledge  of  his  great  compeer,  Rufus  Choate. 
Dimly  had  his  name  been  impressed  upon  our  mind  since  the 
time  he  had  been  associated  as  junior  counsel  with  the  former 
in  the  great  Salem  murder  case,  and  for  the  nearly  thirty 
years  before,  when  he  had  been  a  member  of  Congress  for  the 
Northeast  district,  elected  over  Benj.  W.  Crowningshield, 
who  had  been  Secretary  of  the  Navy  under  Madison  and  Mon 
roe,  and  more  recently  as  Senator  of  the  United  States,  but 
more  than  all  for  his  fame  as  a  lawyer  and  advocate — the 
most  exalted,  save  Webster  alone,  known  to  the  American 


312      RECOLLECTIONS  OF  WEBSTER  AND  CHOATE. 

Bar.  Often,  during  the  winter  of  1848,  we  listened  to  him 
with  delight  in  great  cases  before  Judge  Levi  Woodbury  of 
the  United  States  Circuit  Court,  and  Judge  Sprague  in  the 
Admiralty  Court  for  the  Boston  district,  discussing  questions- 
arising  under  the  constitution,  the  patent  laws,  or  questions 
of  admiralty,  touching  jettison  in  marine  calamities,  colliding- 
of  ships  upon  the  seas,  adjustment  of  losses,  liability  upon, 
bottomry  bond,  salvage,  the  power  of  masters  and  the  rights 
and  duties  of  sailors,  and  all  who  go  down  to  the  sea  in  ships- 
and  do  business  upon  the  great  waters. 

We  remember  most  vividly  the  case  in  which  he  defended 
the  master  of  an  East  Indiaman  who,  on  his  return  home,  was 
charged  by  some  of  his  crew,  among  whom  scurvy  had 
appeared,  with  gross  neglect  in  not  having  laid  in  suitable 
food,  especially  vegetables,  and  particularly  onions,  as  a  pre- 
ventive of  that  malady.  The  master's  defence  was  that 
such  were  not  available  at  the  Cape  of  Good  Hope,  the  only 
port  at  which  they  touched  between  Singapore  and  Boston. 
The  sailors  replied  that  the  captain  could  have  obtained 
onions  at  the  island  of  St.  Helena,  which  he  past  without 
stopping.  The  grandeur  of  Choate's  poetic  sentiments,  and 
the  exultation  of  his  emotions,  was  apparent  in  his  response 
to  the  suggestion  of  negligence  of  this  point.  "  What,"  said 
he,  "negligence  imputed  to  the  master  of  an  East  Indiaman? 
freighted  with  the  silks  and  spices  of  the  Orient,  because,  when 
passing  the  grave  of  Napoleon — the  Tomb  of  the  Rock — he 
was  contemplating  the  mighty  dead,  instead  of  conjuring  up 
in  his  mind  an  antiscorbutic  !  " 

During  the  legislative  session  of  1848,  in  Boston,  Mr. 
Choate  was  much  engaged  before  committees,  mostly  for  or 
against  railroad  projects  ;  but  it  was  in  the  Rhode  Island 
boundary  case  that  we  recall  him  most  vividly.  This  was  a 
case  of  great  public  interest,  which  had  been  pending  in  the 
Supreme  Court  at  Washington,  and  otherwise  in  local  contro- 
versy in  the  Legislatures  of  the  respective  States.  The  case 


RECOLLECTIONS    OF    WEBSTER    AND    CHOATE.  313 

itself  had  become  historical,  as  the  evidence  itself  was  docu- 
mentary and  historical.  The  latest  presentation  of  the  con- 
troversy was  the  report  of  the  joint  Commission,  establishing 
the  true  line.  Massachusetts  citizens,  who  had  thereby  been 
suddenly  thrown  into  Rhode  Island,  protested  against  the 
report.  A  hearing  was  had  touching  the  manner  in  which 
the  commissioners  had  done  their  work  and  the  merits 
thereof.  Mr.  Choate,  who  with  Mr.  Webster  had  argued  the 
case  for  Massachusetts  at  Washington,  was  employed  by  the 
unhappy  citizens.  He  was  assisted  by  Fletcher  Webster. 
The  legislative  committee,  to  whom  the  subject  was  referred, 
held  its  sessions  in  the  Senate  Chamber.  After  the  testimony 
was  in,  which  occupied  many  days,  and  arguments  of  several 
eminent  counsel  had  been  made  without  attracting  more  than 
ordinary  interest,  it  was  announced  that  Mr.  Choate  would 
address  the  committee  the  next  day  in  opposition  to  the 
report  of  the  commissioners.  Nothing,  apparently,  could  be 
less  attractive  than  the  discussion  of  a  boundary  line,  yet  at 
the  hour  the  Senate  Chamber  was  crowded,  and  among  the 
audience  was  an  unprecedented  number  of  the  nlost  distin- 
guished ladies  of  Boston,  who  were  provided  with  eligible 
seats  by  the  thoughtful  and  attentive  Sergeant-at-arms. 

It  proved  one  of  the  most  interesting  entertainments  ever 
listened  to.  Mr.  Choate  was  in  good  spirits  and  his  happiest 
mood.  The  question  was  largely  historical,  running  back 
into  early  colonial  times,  from  the  days  of  Roger  Williams 
and  the  Providence  Plantations.  State  sovereignty  was  mag- 
nified. Every  item  and  scrap  of  history,  documentary  and 
general,  was  at  the  tongue's  end  of  the  wonderful  advocate. 
The  other  side  had  quoted  from  Hugh  Peter's  History  of 
Connecticut,  which  seemed  against  him.  Historians,  it  is  be- 
lieved, have  never  held  that  work  in  high  regard  for  accuracy. 
Choate  complimented  counsel  for  their  research,  and  said  the 
gentlemen  on  the  other  side  would  have  done  still  better  if 
they  had  relied  on  Gulliver's  travels  in  Lilliput  and  Brobdi- 


314      RECOLLECTIONS  OF  WEBSTER  AND  CHOATE. 

nag !  It  had  been  argued  that  Massachusetts  had  lost  her 
right  to  claim  a  certain  other  line  by  her  negligence  and 
laches,  when  Rhode  Island  had  asserted  her  right  over,  and 
had  included  within  her  jurisdiction  some  portions  of  terri- 
tory now  set  to  that  State  by  the  commissioners.  At  this 
point  Choate's  eyes  flashed — his  chest  heaved — his  lips  quiv- 
ered— his  countenance  alternated  from  marble  whiteness  to 
ebony — running  his  fingers  nervously  through  his  fine,  black 
matted  hair,  moist  with  perspiration,  he  burst  out  with  one  of 
those  grand  explosions,  peculiar  to  himself  and  inimitable, 
saying,  "  Massachusetts  negligent !  Massachusetts  guilty  of 
laches!  Where  was  Massachusetts  in  1745?  She  was  not  at 
home — her  sons  were  away  on  distant  service  of  the  colony- 
serving  the  mother  country — obeying  the  orders  of  the  minis- 
tr}-  of  Great  Britain  and  the  commands  of  the  generals  of  her 
armies — aye,  drawing  cannon  across  the  miry  marshes  around 
Louisburg  in  distant  Nova  Scotia  !  No  advantage  can  be 
taken  of  a  sovereign  State  in  the  enforced  and  patriotic 
absence  of  her  sons."  These  words  seem  tame  when  written, 
but  the  electric  battery  that  shot  them  forth,  the  occasion  and 
grandeur  of  the  theme,  and  the  oratorical  splendor  of  the  man 
are  all  required  for  due  appreciation  of  the  effect  of  such 
utterances. 

It  was  in  this  same  address  that  he  perpetrated  that  ex- 
quisite exaggeration,  when  he  paraphrased  the  description  of 
the  monuments  which  the  commissioners  had  fixed  to  indi- 
cate the  line  of  the  two  States.  "  Beginning,  etc. — thence  to 
an  angle  on  the  easterly  side  Of  Watuppa  Pond,  thence 
across  said  pond  to  the  two  rocks  on  the  westerly  side  of  said 
pond  and  near  thereto,  thence  westerly  to  the  buttonwood 
tree,  in  the  village  of  Fall  River,  etc.,  etc."  Commenting  on 
this  description,  he  said  in  his  most  facetious  manner,  turning 
to  the  commissioners  who  were  present — "A  boundary  line 
between  sovereign  States  described  by  a  couple  of  stones  near 
a  pond,  and  a  buttonwood  sapling  in  a  village  !  The  honor- 


RECOLLECTIONS    OF    WEBSTER    AND    CHOATE.  315 

able  commissioners  might  as  well  have  defined  it  as  starting 
from  a  blue  jay  on  a  fence,  thence  to  a  sapling,  thence  to  an 
annual  plant,  thence  to  a  hive  of  bees  in  swarming  time,  and 
thence  to  a  thousand  foxes  with  fire  brands  tied  to  their 
tails  !  "  This  outburst  of  humor  was  inimitable  and  delight- 
ful. It  was  music,  wealth,  dignity  and  grace  when  uttered  by 
the  matchless  orator,  and  it  was  appreciated  and  enjoyed  by 
the  commissioners  themselves,  no  less  than  by  the  committee 
and  the  splendid  audience  that  witnessed  the  rich  entertain- 
ment. This  sally  of  witty  ridicule  of  the  recorded  labors  of 
the  eminent  commissioners,  bestowed  upon  the  grave  subject 
of  the  boundary  line  of  sovereign  States,  came  nearest  creat- 
ing loud  laughter  of  any  remark  we  ever  heard  him  utter. 
While  there  was  no  end  of  the  line  of  witty  sayings,  humorous 
expressions,  captivating  repartSs,  and  graceful  play  upon 
words,  all  delightful,  pleasing  and  memorable,  and  which 
passed  as  currency,  not  only  among  gentlemen  of  the  Bar,  but 
ever  to  be  remembered  and  repeated  by  his  auditors,  yet  such 
was  ever  the  stateliness  and  dignity  of  his  st}'le  and  manner, 
such  the  purity  of  his  taste,  and  such  his  imperial  grace,  that 
the  playfulness  of  his  spirit  and  the  exuberance  of  his  fanciful 
conceits  rarely,  if  ever,  caused  a  loud,  certainly  never 
a  boisterous,  laugh.  The  idea  imparted  generally  was  so 
delicate  as  to  cause  merely  a  smile,  while  the  subject  was  one 
for  pleasant  reflection,  ever  to  be  retained  in  memory  to  be 
told  for  the  edification  and  delight  of  others.  Of  the  great 
and  inexhaustible  fund  of  rich  and  memorable  anecdotes  of 
Choate,  but  few  comparatively  are  found  in  his  biography, 
or  elsewhere  in  print,  but  they  are  among  the  legendary 
treasures  of  the  New  England  Bar  to-day,  rehearsed  and 
admired  as  when  the}T  came  fresh  and  sparkling  from  his  lips 
during  the  forty  years  of  his  professional  life  and  personal 
renown. 

No  one  has  ever  been  able  to  communicate  to  another  any 
intelligent  or  definite  idea  of  either  how  Mr.  Choate  looked 


316      RECOLLECTIONS  OF  WEBSTER  AND  CHOATE. 

in  person,  or  the  manner  and  style  of  his  oratory.  Words  are 
all  lost  and  meaningless  in  such  an  effort.  As  no  other  ever 
spoke  like  him,  so  none  other  ever  looked  like  him  —  conse- 
quently there  never  was  anybody  in  any  town  or  city  with 
whom  an  approximate  comparison  could  be  made.  When 
Webster  and  Choate,  Dix  and  Dickinson,  Clay,  Benton,. 
Ewing,  Corwin,  Calhoun,  Mangum  and  Berrien  and  others 
made  the  United  States  Senate  the  most  august  and  renowned 
deliberative  body  in  the  world,  somebody  could  be  found  in 
most  any  city  or  State  who  resembled  in  some  degree  some 
senator  except  Choate.  None  could  be  found  who  resembled 
him.  His  type  was  Oriental.  He  looked  no  more  like  an 
American  than  did  Disraeli  like  the  typical  Englishman. 
He  seemed  to  be  born  of  the  poetical  union  of  the  "  Palm  and 
the  Pine."  One  might  judge  his  mother  to  have  been  a 
dark  eyed  princess  of  India,  and  his  father  a  chief  from  the 
high  plateaus  of  the  Caucasus. 

There  seemed  to  be  contending  elements  in  his  blood  striv- 
ing for  the  mastery  to  give  expression  to  his  countenance. 
His  face  in  later  life  was  finely  wrinkled,  giving  it  the  appear- 
ance of  a  slightly  browned  baked  apple.  According  to  his 
emotions  was  the  changeableness  of  his  complexion.  At 
times  his  forehead  would  be  white  as  marble  and  his  lower 
face  very  dark.  At  other  times  his  lips  would  be  livid,  and 
his  ears  white  to  transparency,  while  his  forehead  would 
become  dark  and  frowning  as  a  storm  cloud.  His  eye  was 
dark,  beautiful  and  sad. 

Regarding  Mr.  Choate's  style  of  expression,  whether  at  the 
legal  forum,  before  court  or  jury,  in  his  written  addresses  on 
public  occasions,  or  before  learned  societies  and  institutions, 
he  has  been  the  subject  of  a  variety  of  criticism,  especially 
for  what  has  been  denominated  his  long  and  involved  sen- 
tences. The  most  just  and  competent  doubtless  is  by  his 
friend  and  most  admirable  biographer,  Professor  Brown,  of 
Dartmouth,  who  says,  "His  style  has  sometimes  been 


RECOLLECTIONS    OF    WEBSTER    AND    CHOATE.  317 

criticised  by  those  who  have  forgotten  that  his  speeches 
were  meant  for  hearers  rather  than  for  readers,  and  that  a 
mind  of  such  extraordinary  affluence  and  vigor  will,  of 
necessity,  in  many  respects,  be  a  law  unto  itself.  He  was, 
however,  quite  aware  that  a  style  of  greater  simplicity  and 
severity  would  be  necessary  for  a  writer,  and  this,  probably, 
was  one  thing  that  prevented  him  from  entering  seriously  on 
those  literary  labors  which  were  evidently,  at  one  time,  an 
object  of  real  interest."  Another  subtle  and  thoughtful  critic 
in  an  elaborate  analyzation  of  Mr.  Choate's  style  says, 
•"  He  had  words,  and  he  used  them  in  rich  abundance  ;  but 
if  you  examine  even  the  most  sounding  of  his  long  sentences, 
you  find  in  them  no  redundant  words.  Each  of  the  several 
members  is  made  up  of  such  words,  and  of  such  only,  as 
were  needed  for  the  perfect  expression  of  the  thought  — 
nor  was  it  in  that  cumulative  power  by  which  one  idea, 
image,  or  argument,  is  piled  upon  another,  so  as  to  make 
up  an  overwhelming  mass.  He  had  this  power  in  a  remark- 
able degree  ;  but  so  had  many  others  —  perhaps  almost  all 
great  orators.  Cicero  has  left  some  splendid  examples  of  it. 
It  was  rather  the  result  of  the  peculiar  logical  structure  of 
his  mind ;  for  in  him  logic  and  rhetoric  were  not  separate 
departments,  but  one  living  process.  He  instinctively  strove 
to  present  an  idea,  a  .thought,  in  its  perfect  completeness  — 
the  thought,  the  whole  thought,  and  nothing  but  the  thought; 
so  to  present  it  that  there  would  be  no  need  of  adding  to  his 
statement  of  it,  subtracting  from  it,  or  in  any  way  modifying 
it  after  it  was  once  made." 

Delighted  in  our  younger  days  with  his  speech,  and  unable 
to  comprehend  his  wonderful  mental  powers  and  endow- 
ments, or  to  analyze  his  sentences,  or  to  conceive  how  such 
exuberance  of  fancy,  wealth  of  learning,  and  grandeur  of 
sentiment,  could  be  crowded  into  a  single  sentence,  yet  we 
were  conscious  that  there  was  at  times  an  alarming  distance 
.and  seemingly  an  impassable  gulf  between  the  substantive 


318      RECOLLECTIONS  OF  WEBSTER  AND  CHOATE. 

and  predicate,  yet  so  triumphantly  would  he  span  it,  so  rich 
and  perfect  would  be  the  structure,  that  not  a  single  word  or 
expression  could  be  eliminated  without  destroying  the  per- 
fect beauty  of  the  intellectual  edifice.  Some  of  his  sentences 
occupy  a  page,  but  not  a  line  can  be  erased  without  marring 
its  perfection. 

Mr.  Choate  was  not  only  a  wonderfully  brilliant  advocate, 
holding  spell-bound  juries  and  audiences,  but  he  was,  more- 
over, a  great  and  profound  lawyer,  who  captivated  learned 
and  grave  judges  by  his  surpassing  analysis,  logic,  and 
felicitous  illustration.  To  those  whose  minds  were  better 
adapted  to  appreciate  him  in  both  fields  of  legal  labor  and 
high  service,  he  was,  if  possible,  still  more  highly  estimated 
for  his  exalted  capacity  and  power  in  the  elucidation  of  legal 
principles  before  the  great  tribunal  of  the  supreme  court. 
His  vast  energies,  constant  and  unremitting  labors,  and 
unbounded  research  in  the  antiquities  of  jurisprudence,  the 
brilliancy  of  his  imagination  and  his  facility  of  speech  made 
him  no  less  a  formidable  competitor  before  courts  than 
before  juries.  He  was  a  Cuvier  in  the  law  —  could  take  a 
single  bone  of  the  law,  abstracted  from  the  tomb  of  dead 
nations,  and  reconstruct  the  perfect  skeleton,  clothe  it  with 
muscle  and  nerve,  and  breathing  into  its  nostrils  his  own 
breath  of  life,  present  it  to  the  court  a  living  realit}T.  He 
was  a  Max  Miiller,  tracing  the  origins  of  nations  and  peoples, 
and  their  institutions,  in  the  roots  of  words  and  in  the 
maxims  of  dim  and  forgotten  law  —  a  Lyell  in  the  legal 
world,  in  his  knowledge  of  its  cycles  of  time  and  the  order  of 
creation  —  could  brush  away  its  drift  of  sands,  clay,  shales 
and  gravels,  and  lay  bare  the  primeval  foundation  and  bed- 
rock of  both  the  civil  and  the  common  law. 

His  was,  withal,  one  of  those  broad  and  noble  minds  charac- 
teristic of  the  really  great  men  and  eminent  lawyers  who 
never  conceive  of  a  rival,  certainly  never  among  younger 
lawyers.  He  never  disparaged  the  merits  of  any  professional 


RECOLLECTIONS    OF    WEBSTER    AND    CHOATE.  319 

brother,  but  would  find  and  make  apology  for  his  failure. 
He  never  assumed  as  his  own  wisdom  derived  from  his 
associates  in  the  trial  of  a  case.  If  a  young  or  junior  coun- 
sel ever  whispered  to  him  a  suggestion,  or  reminded  him  of 
a  point  of  testimony  or  law  during  an  argument,  he  would 
thank  him  and  give  him  the  full  benefit  thereof,  and  more, 
by  saying  to  the  court  or  jmy — my  learned  brother — or,  my 
more  thoughtful  young  associate,  suggests,  or  reminds  me  so 
and  so,  and  clothe  the  thought,  however  crude,  in  the  most 
admirable  dress,  and  present  it  as  a  vital  matter,  and  as 
though  it  would  have  escaped  him  but  for  his  associate  — 
thus  always  pleasantly  and  cheerfully  magnifying  the  wis- 
dom of  his  colleague.  He  was  the  delight  of  young  prac- 
titioners whom,  if  he  saw  one  embarrassed  by  or  involved 
in  a  tangle  with  the  court,  or  troubled  about  the  admissibili- 
ty  of  testimony,  or  lacking  in  fullness  in  some  point  of  his 
argument  to  the  jury,  he  would  contrive  quietly  to  whisper 
in  his  ear  some  suggestion,  authorit}7,  or  mode  of  relief — 
thus,  and  by  all,  was  he  loved  and  admired  as  a  father,  brother 
and  friend.  He  took  worthy  young  lawyers  to  his  heart  on 
unaffected  social  and  professional  equality,  and  always  gave 
them  countenance,  encouragement  and  inspiration. 

Many  are  the  court  house  and  bar  anecdotes  related  of 
Mr.  Choate,  touching  his  wonderful  vocabulary  «f  choice 
and  appropriate  words,  technical  and  otherwise,  so  useful 
and  necessarj7  in  expressing  his  ideas  arid  in  the  illustration 
of  many  themes.  He  seemed  to  collect  words  for  profes- 
sional use  as  a  professor  in  a  college  would  collect  choice 
and  appropriate  books,  and  classify  them  upon  his  shelves, 
or  as  an  artist  or  skilled  mechanic  would  obtain  useful 
and  beautiful  tools  adapted  to  his  occupation.  Knowing 
his  habit  in  this  respect,  gentlemen  would  frequently  say, 
"Mr.  Choate,  I  have  discovered  a  new  word  for  you." 
Thanking  his  thoughtful  friend,  he  would  likely  remark, 
"That  word  is  timely — I  have  use  for  it."  Perhaps  a  week 


320  RECOLLECTIONS    OF    WEBSTER    AND    CHOATE. 

or  a  month  afterward,  when  the  gentleman  had  forgotten  the 
pleasantly,  Mr.  Choate  would,  to  his  surprise,  use  it  in 
addressing  court  or  jury,  and  in  the  most  natural  and 
felicitous  manner,  never  failing,  however,  to  turn  to  the 
contributor,  and  graciously  nod  his  acknowledgment. 

When  the  late  Isaac  O.  Barnes,  of  New  Hampshire,  was 
United  States  Marshal  for  the  Eastern  Circuit,  attendant 
upon  Judge  Levi  Woodbury's  court  at  Boston  in  1848, 
being  a  brother-in-law  of  the  judge  —  a  gentleman  of  some 
literary  accomplishments,  and  a  great  admirer  and  close 
observer  of  Mr.  Choate's  style  and  language,  he  related  to 
the  writer  the  following  anecdote. 

Mr.  Choate  had  the  habit  common  to  the  profession  of 
depreciating  the  Weight,  value,  or  lack  of  testimony  upon  a 
given  point  by  the  use  of  several  expressions,  such  as  — 
there  is  no  evidence  —  not  a  syllable  —  not  a  word  —  not  a 
particle  —  not  an  iota — not  a  scintilla.     One  day,  when  the 
great  forensic  orator  had  run  through  with  much  vehemence 
this  formula  of  depreciating  terms,  and  had  demolished  his 
adversary,  Barnes  said  to  him,  "Choate,  you  might  have 
ground  that  testimony  a  little  finer  —  why  didn't  you  add— 
'not  ajspicule  ?'  that  is  smaller  than  scintilla." 

Some  time  afterwards,  when  the  marshal  had  forgotten 
all  his  own  facetiousness,  Mr.  Choate  was  addressing  the 
jury  with  great  earnestness,  and  having  a  like  occasion  to 
use  some  or  all  the  several  depreciatory  expressions,  which 
he  did,  and  to  the  full  extent,  winding  up  with  expressive 
emphasis  —  "No,  gentlemen,  not  even  a  spicule"  —  and  turn- 
ing to  Barnes,  said  in  an  undertone,  "  Mr.  Marshal,  is  that 
fine  enough  ?  " 

When,  some  thirty  years  ago,  the  great  publishing  house 
of  George  and  Charles  Merriam,  of  Springfield,  Massachu- 
setts, undertook  the  publishing  of  Webster's  Dictionary,  and 
issued  an  enlarged  and  illustrated  edition,  which  was  said  to 
embrace  some  two  or  three  thousand  more  words  than  any 


RECOLLECTIONS    OF    WEBSTER    AND    CHOATE.  321 

other  dictionary  extant,  the  subject  was  one  day  incidentally 
alluded  to  in  the  Supreme  Court  room  at  Boston.  The  grave 
and  solemn  Chief  Justice  Shaw,  overhearing  the  remark  of  a 
gentleman  of  the  Bar,  but  not  quite  understanding  the  full 
import  of  the  conversation,  and  perhaps  supposing  the  refer- 
ence was  to  some  new  legal  treatise,  citing  a  large  number  of 
•cases  not  before  found  in  the  American  and  English  reports, 
said,  "  What  work  is  that  yon  are  speaking  of,  Mr.  Attor- 
ney ?  "  "  The  new  edition  of  Webster,  your  honor,  with  3000 
new  words.''  The  Chief,  without  a  smile  on  his  severe  and 
awful  countenance,  said,  in  a  kind  of  confidential  undertone, 
"  Don't  tell  Mr.  Choate  of  it."  Such  was  the  coin  pleasantly 
tendered  to  Mr.  Choate  by  the  bench  and  Bar  of  Boston,  in 
exchange  for  his  prolific  issue  of  intellectual  bonds  and  green- 
backs. 

It  is  one  of  the  curiosities  of  literature  that  mam',  if  not 
nearly  all,  famous  expressions  used  by  modern  statesmen, 
philosophers,  or  scholars,  are  often  of  great  antiquit}',  and 
have  been  merely  adopted  as  felicitous  and  appropriate  ex- 
pressions for  some  special  occasion  by  eminent  personages  to 
whom  later  generations  attribute  originality  and  authorship. 
Such  is  the  history  of  the  familiar  American  political  expres- 
sion "masterly  inactivity."  Within  the  last  generation  Mr.  Cal- 
houn  has  been  considered  the  author  of,  or  at  least  credited 
with,  the  authorship  of  the  phrase ;  but  it  was  used  by  John 
Randolph  much  earlier,  and  is  incorporated  in  the  speeches  of 
that  eccentric  statesman  as  though  he  was  the  inventor  and  pat- 
entee. Mr.  Randolph  had  doubtless  early  found  it  in  the 
speeches  of  Sir  James  Mclntosh,  who  had  said,  "The  commons, 
faithful  to  their  system,  remained  in  a  wise  and  masterly  inac- 
tivity." So  with  man}'  others,  and  especially  concerning  that 
most  celebrated  expression  "glittering  generalities,"  which  be- 
came famous  as  the  political  criticism  of  Mr.  Choate  of  the 
Declaration  of  Independence,  in  his  letter  to  the  Whigs  of 
Maine  in  1856.  That  famous  expression  came  in  this  wise  :  Mr. 
21 


322      RECOLLECTIONS  OF  WEBSTER  AND  CHOATE. 

Choate,  in  December,  1849,  delivered  in  Providence,  R.  I.y 
his  celebrated  lecture  entitled  "  Mental  culture,  the  true  local 
policy  of  New  England."  It  was  reviewed  in  the  columns  ol 
the  Providence  Daily  Journal,  a  day  or  two  thereafter,  at  con- 
siderable length,  and  in  appreciative  terms  and  admirable 
spirit,  by  Mr.  Franklin  J.  Dickman,  of  Cleveland,  then  a  young 
lawyer  of  the  Rhode  Island  Bar,  and  lately  United  States  Dis- 
trict Attorney  for  the  Northern  District  of  Ohio,  saying  there- 
in in  conclusion :  "  We  fear  that  the  glittering  generalities 
have  fallen  upon  the  ear  like  the  'exquisite  music  of  a 
dream,'  and  have  not  produced  that  deep  conviction  and 
stimulated  to  that  increased  mental  activity  in  which  consists 
the  true  local  policy  of  New  England."  Mr.  Choate  noted 
carefully  opinions  expressed  in  public  journals,  especially 
touching  his  discourses  before  literary  societies  and  learned 
bodies,  and  pleased  with  the  terms  and  spirit  of  the  Provi- 
dence reviewer  and  critic,  and  knowing  him  as  one  of  the 
scholarly  gentlemen  who  had  entertained  him  there,  "  glitter- 
ing generalities  "  captivated  his  fancy,  and  he  adopted  the  ex- 
pression and  availed  himself  of  its  service  on  a  momentous 
public  occasion,  and  thereby  gave  immortalit}^  to  the  words 
of  his  friendly  reviewer  and  critic. 

The  peculiarly  felicitous  remarks  of  Richard  H.  Dana,  at  a 
meeting  of  the  Boston  Bar,  soon  after  the  death  of  Mr. 
Choate,  express,  by  reason  of  his  singularly  significant  and 
happy  illustration,  the  sentiments  entertained  for  his  memory 
by  the  peers  of  the  law,  there  and  elsewhere,  no  less  than 
those  of  the  distinguished  lawyer  and  publicist  who  spoke 
the  words, — "Sir,  I  speak  for  myself — I  have  no  right  to 
speak  for  others,  but  I  can  truly  say,  without  exaggeration, 
taking  for  the  moment  a  simile  from  that  element  which  he 
loved  as  much  as  I  love  it,  though  it  rose  against  his  life  at 
last,  that  in  his  presence  I  felt  like  the  master  of  a  small 
coasting  vessel  that  hugs  the  shore,  that  has  run  up  under 
the  lee  to  speak  a  great  homeward  bound  Indiaman,  freighted 


RECOLLECTIONS    OF   WEBSTER   AND    CHOATE.  323 

with  silks  and  precious  stones,  spices  and  costly  fabrics,  with 
sky-sails  and  studding-sails  spread  to  the  breeze,  with  the 
nation's  flag  at  her  mast-head,  navigated  by  the  mysterious 
science  of  the  fixed  stars,  and  not  unprepared  with  weapons 
of  defence,  her  decks  peopled  with  men  in  strange  costumes, 
speaking  of  strange  climes  and  distant  lands.  All  loved  him, 
especially  the  young.  He  stood  before  us  an  example  of  em- 
inence in  science,  in  erudition,  in  genius,  in  taste, — in  honor, 
in  generosity,  in  humanit}', — in  every  liberal  sentiment,  and 
every  liberal  accomplishment." 


324  THE    KIDD    LETTER. 


THE  KIDD  LETTER. 


A  BOUT  midwaj^  between  Springfield  and  Worcester, 
^*  Massachusetts,  is  the  pleasant,  romantic  and  historical 
town  of  Palmer.  It  was  organized  by  special  act  of  the 
Colonial  Assembty  in  1752.  The  tract  of  land  anciently 
called  the  "Elbows,"  from  the  form  of  its  southern  river 
boundary,  was  purchased  of  a  tribe  of  Indians,  the  last  east 
of  the  Connecticut  river,  once  the  warriors  of  King  Philip, 
about  1730.  The  deed  was  executed  by  Chief  Nassowanno 
to  sundry  persons,  called,  in  the  subsequent  records  of  the 
town,  the  "Original  Proprietors  of  the  Elbows."  The  proprie- 
tors were  largely  Scotch.  A  junction  of  three  considerable 
rivers,  the  Chicopee,  the  Ware,  and  the  Swift  is  made  within 
and  near  its  western  border — each  furnishing  extensive  water 
power,  which,  for  fifty  years  or  more,  has  been  utilized  for 
immense  cotton  factories  and  other  industries.  The  Chicopee 
has  its  source  in  the  backbone  of  the  State,  near  Worcester, 
and  courses  directly  west  to  the  Connecticut  river,  just 
above  Springfield.  The  fountains  of  the  Ware  are  in  the 
northeast,  and  fed  by  the  western  watershed  of  Wachusett, 
the  highest  mountain  of  the  State,  so  celebrated  nearly  a  hun- 
dred years  ago,  that  Albert  Gallatine,  the  young  and  scholarly 
Swiss  emigrant  and  subsequent  able  financier  and  ultimate 
Secretary  of  the  Treasury  of  the  United  States,  though  born 
under  the  morning  shadow  of  Mount  Blanc,  made  a  journey 
of  70  miles  from  Boston,  soon  after  he  landed,  to  stand  upon 
its  summit  and  survey  a  portion  of  five  of  the  New  England 
States.  The  third  and  last,  Swift  river,  comes  directly  from 
the  north,  its  two  main  fountains  being  in  the  towns  of 


THE    KIDD    LETTER.  325 

Patersham  and  Pelham,  the  latter  the  birth  place  and  home 
of  the  once  notorious  Stephen  Burroughs,  the  eccentric  ex- 
horter,  pious  fraud,  confidence  man,  dead  beat,  and  dare  devil 
of  three  generations  ago. 

Palmer  is  so  situated,  and  having  such  manufacturing 
facilities,  that  several  large  and  enterprising  villages  are  em- 
braced within  its  limits.  Besides  the  depot  village,  which  in 
later  years  is  recognized  by  the  name  of  the  town,  there  is  the 
Old  Center,  Thorndike,  Duckville,  Three  Rivers,  Sedgwick, 
and  Blanchardville.  The  geological  formation  and  topo- 
graphical features  of  the  town  are  incitives  to  study  and 
reflection — they  are  unique  and  attractive.  The  central 
ridge  of  highlands,  in  the  forks  between  the  Chicopee  and 
Ware  rivers,  terminates  in  the  eastern  part  of  the  town,  in  a 
bold,  lofty  and  precipitous  cliff  several  hundred  feet  in  height 
above  the  two  rivers.  Its  base  is  granite,  but  topped  out  in 
the  highest  part  with  thousands  upon  thousands  of  erratic 
rocks  and  bowlders,  piled  and  tumbled  in  wild  confusion,  the 
wreck  of  an  ancient  world — a  might}'  morain  of  the  glacial 
ages  ;  and  all  originally  covered  with  a  dense  primeval  forest. 
Upon  the  spurs  and  along  the  north  side  of  this  lofty  ridge, 
at  the  foot  of  which  runs  the  Ware  river,  was  the  trail  of  the 
Indian  during  unknown  ages,  between  the  Atlantic  coast  and 
the  Connecticut  river,  thence  to  the  Stockbridge  tribes,  the 
Mohawks,  and  the  Five  Nations  of  central  New  York.  Then 
over  this  high  and  dry  old  Indian  trail,  from  1630  a  hundred 
years,  was  the  route  between  the  Plymouth  and  Massachu- 
setts Bay  Colonies  and  the  settlements  at  Deerfield,  Spring- 
field, Windsor  and  Hartford  in  the  valley  of  the  Connecticut 
river.  Then  from  1730  to  Revolutionary  times,  as  towns  be- 
came partially  settled  along  this  line,  from  the  great  valley 
to  Worcester  and  Boston,  it  became  the  cleared  and  ulti- 
mately worked  highway,  and  over  which  detachments  of  the 
defeated  army  of  Burgoyne  marched  from  Saratoga  to  Boston, 
the  record  of  which  is  certified  at  frequent  intervals  by  heaps 


326  THE    KIDD    LETTER. 

of  stone  marking  the  burial  place  of  a  British  soldier,  who, 
exhausted  unto  death,  dropped  out  of  the  ranks  and  made 
his  last  sad  bivouac  in  the  lonely  forest  by  the  side  of  the 
mountain  road.  Afterwards  came  the  age  of  the  turnpike 
and  stage  line,  still  keeping  the  ancient  route  from  point  to 
point  over  the  ridges  and  elevated  places,  and  along  which, 
from  1789  till  about  1840,  the  yellow  coach  of  four  and  six 
sped  across  these  hills  carrying  passengers,  and  the  mails,  the 
news  of  the  wars  of  Europe,  the  fall  of  dynasties,  the  battles  of 
Austerlitz,  Lodi,  Waterloo — of  Elba,  St.  Helena  and  the 
Tomb  of  the  Rock — of  the  Presidential  elections  from  Wash- 
ington to  Harrison — all  this  was  pondered  and  repeated  along 
this  venerable  highway,  where  now  neither  the  crack  of  the 
coachman's  whip  nor  the  blasts  of  his  bugle  echo  in  its  soli- 
tudes. 

Lastl}r  come  steam  and  iron,  modern  engineering  and  elec- 
tricity, which  swept  into  oblivion  all  former  systems  and 
modes  of  travel,  transport  and  communication.  Then  the 
mountain  towns  and  routes  were  forsaken,  and  the  valleys 
and  lowlands  became  not  only  the  route  of  the  locomotive, 
but  also  the  highways  for  local  travel,  the  mail  and  the  tele- 
graph, and  the  sites  of  modern  cities  and  villages ;  leaving  to 
solitude  and  desolation  the  ancient  highways  and  homes  of 
our  forefathers  upon  the  high  places  of  the  land. 

It  was  the  happ}'  fortune  of  the  writer  to  reside  in  this 
grand  old  historical  town  from  1848  to  1854,  and  man3r  were 
the  contemplative  walks  and  pleasant  drives  over  long 
abandoned  portions  of  its  ancient  highwa}',  grown  up  with 
grass  and  arched  over  by  stately  trees,  and  to  search  its  records 
of  by-gone  times  and  learn  its  early  history.  Here  by  its  most 
ancient  "Inn,"  known  in  later  days  as  "the  old  Sedgwick 
tavern,"  before  which  stood,  70  years  ago,  the  inevitable  sign 
post,  with  its  swinging  painted  sign  of  the  chained  lion, 
which  greeted  the  eye  of  the  wear}'  traveler  of  the  olden  time, 
from  the  distant  hills  on  either  side,  with  assurance  of  gener- 


THE    KIDD    LETTER.  327 

ous  hospitality,  good  entertainment  for  man  and  beast — hay 
and  oats  for  horses,  and  a  good  supper,  a  mug  of  flip  and  a 
clean  bed  for  the  traveler.  Here  rebellious  Daniel  Shays  and 
his  men  halted  on  their  way  to  Springfield,  and  here  also 
rested  General  Lincoln  and  the  State  militia  for  a  moment 
on  their  march  in  pursuit  of  the  insurgents.  At  this  old 
tavern,  nearly  a  hundred  }~ears  ago,  was  overtaken  and  cap- 
tured "  Lightfoot,"  the  comrade  of  "  Thunderbolt,"  notorious 
and  dreaded  road  agents — highwaymen — once  as  much  the 
terror  of  the  New  England  traveler  and  the  people  of  the 
lonely  settlements  as  the  James  brothers  of  recent  days  upon 
our  Western  plains,  and  whose  daring  and  dreadful  deeds 
rural  people  related  to  their  children  more  than  sixty  years 
ago. 

While  the  famous  Mecklenburg  Declaration  of  Indepen- 
dence, of  May  20,  1775,  is  a  subject  of  doubt  and  uncertainty 
in  the  estimation  of  historians  to-day,  as  it  was  deemed  a 
myth  and  canard  by  both  Adams  and  Jefferson,  as  evidenced 
by  their  correspondence  in  ]819,  when  the  apocryphal  docu- 
ment was  first  printed,  the  town  of  Palmer  has  the  honor  of 
having  spread  upon  its  records,  of  the  date  of  June  17,  1775, 
the  very  day  of  the  battle  of  Bunker  Hill,  but  of  which  event 
the  citizens  could  that  day  have  had  no  knowledge,  being 
nearly  a  hundred  miles  therefrom,  a  Declaration  of  Indepen- 
dence, in  the  form  of  resolutions,  wherein  the}'  assert  the 
"  inalienable  rights,"  the  duty  of  the  Congress  to  declare  the 
same,  and  pledging  themselves  to  its  support,  almost  in  the 
identical  language  of  the  Declaration -of  Independence,  passed 
by  the  Congress  more  than  a  j-ear  later.  If  Mecklenburg  did 
not  anticipate  the  Congress,  certain!}-  Palmer  did.  It  is  a 
most  curious  and  interesting  record,  showing  beyond  question 
that  the  sentiments  in  our  now  famous  Declaration  had  been 
well  understood,  and  its  words  familiar  and  almost  common 
expressions  of  the  people.  The  citizens  of  Palmer,  even  then 
and  there,  pledged  their  lives,  fortunes  and  their  honor,  to 


328  THE    K1DD    LETTER, 

the  maintenance  of  their  Declaration  of  Independence,  the 
very  day  Warren  fell,  wholly  unconscious  of  the  conflict  of 
arms. 

But  of  what  significance,  now  and  here,  is  the  history  of  a 
Massachusetts  town — the  description  of  granite  hills — of  dis- 
placed rocks,  and  bowlders  from  disintegrated  Arctic  moun- 
tains— of  abandoned  highways  ? 

"Crags,  knolls  and  mounds  confusedly  hurled — 
The  fragments  of  an  earlier  world." 

It  is  to  illustrate  by  time,  place,  geography  and  topography 
of  the  country,  incidents  and  surroundings,  the  probabilities 
concerning,  if  not  to  convince  the  reader  of  the  historical 
truth  involved  in  the  following  narrative.  This,  and  nothing 
more  : 

One  morning  in  February,  1849,  rather  exciting  word  was 
brought  into  the  depot  village  on  the  Boston  and  Albany  rail- 
road, that  a  singular  and  remarkable  document  or  letter  had 
been  found  by  the  side  of  "  The  Old  Road,"  on  the  farm  of 
one  Samuel  Shaw,  by  his  son  and  his  cousin,  the  son  of  a  Dr. 
Gardiner  Shaw,  two  young  men,  one  about  twenty,  the  other 
perhaps  eighteen  years  old,  who  had  been  out  the  day  before 
with  their  dog  in  pursuit  of  rabbits.  Having  run  one  under  a 
shelving  ledge  of  rocks,  they  sought  to  dislodge  him  by  en- 
larging the  apperture,  so  that  the  dog  might  enter,  or,  if  prac- 
ticable, to  draw  him  forth  with  the  hand.  Removing  a  loose 
stone,  one  of  the  }'oung  men  thrusting  in  his  arm,  his  hand 
came  in  contact  with  a  small  glass  bottle,  or  rather,  perhaps,  a 
large  vial.  Drawing  it  forth,  and  seeing  that  it  contained  a 
roll  of  paper,  they  became  very  much  excited  and  curious  to 
learn  what,  if  anything,  was  written  thereon.  The  vial  was  her- 
metically sealed  with  a  cork  made  of  sheet  lead,  closely  and 
tightly  pressed  in,  with  a  cap  of  the  same  material  over  all, 
and  wound  tight  around  the  neck  by  a  small  wire  or  cord, 
somewhat  after  the  manner  in  which  sea-faring  persons  prepare 


THE    KIDD    LETTER.  329* 

communications  to  be  thrown  overboard  in  time  of  distress,, 
hoping  the  same  may  be  washed  upon  some  distant  coast. 
Going  to  the  house  on  the  side,  and  nearest  the  highest  part 
of  the  rocky  mountain  heretofore  described,  and  not  many 
rods  from  the  place  of  their  find,  the}*  uncorked  the  vial  and 
attempted  to  withdraw  the  paper,  but  the  scroll  having 
loosened  from  its  coil  after  its  insertion  through  the  small 
neck,  filling  it  full,  they  found  it  impracticable  to  obtain  the 
paper  intact,  and  were  necessitated  to  break  the  glass- 
There  were  two  pieces  of  paper  in  the  vial ;  the  outer  one 
bore  merely  a  postscript,  but  upon  the  inner  one  there  was. 
written  what  follows  : 

To  John  Bailey,  Esq.,  New  York  : 

Sir — I  fear  we  are  in  a  bad  situation,  we  are  taken  for 
pirates,  and  you  must  come  to  Boston  as  soon  as  you  get 
this  ;  there  is  no  one  here  I  can  depend  on — the  man  who 
brings  this  to  you  cannot  read  it,  he  knows  nothing  what  is  in 
it — you  must  come  as  soon  as  you  get  it,  or  I  may  not  see 
you  before  I  am  carried  to  England.  If  I  do  not  see  you  I 
will  tell  you  where  the  money  is,  for  we  have  a  plenty  of  that 
if  it  will  do  any  good.  It  is  buried  on  Conant's  Island,  in 
Boston  Harbor,  dn  the  northwest  corner  of  the  island  in  two 
chests,  containing  from  fifteen  to  twenty  thousand  pounds 
sterling,  in  money,  jewels  and  diamonds.  They  are  buried 
about  four  feet  deep  with  a  flat  stone  on  them,  and  a  pile  of 
stones  near  by.  There  is  no  one  that  knows  where  it  is  but 
me  now  living,  as  Dick  Jones  and  I  hid  it  when  part  of  our 
men  were  in  Boston  and  the  rest  were  asleep  one  night — it  is 
about  sixty  rods  up  the  side  hill.  I  want  to  see  you  before 
we  are  carried  to  Old  England,  if  possible — if  not,  you  must 
get  all  the  witnesses  in  my  favor,  and  the  best  of  counsel  ta 
help  you.  I  want  you  to  see  Col.  Slaughter  and  John 
Nichols  and  James  Bayard  and  Capt.  Houson  and  Edward 
Teach,  and  all  that  can  do  me  any  good ;  say  nothing  to  them 


330  THE    KIDD    LETTER. 

about  the  money  or  that  I  have  wrote  to  you.  You  know 
my  old  friends  in  New  York,  and  who  will  help  me.  That 
Moore  scrape  is  the  worst  part  of  my  case.  I  think  my 
interest  with  Lord  Bellamont.  and  my-  two  commissions  and 
some  French  papers  I  have  with  me,  and  my  men  running  away 
to  the  pirates  to  Culiford,  and  other  things  are  in  my  favor. 
All  may  be  safe  yet ;  they  think  I  have  got  money  buried 
down  at  Plymouth  or  that  wa}-  somewhere,  they  don't  think 
it  is  so  near  Boston ;  but  they  shan't  have  my  money  and 
life  too  ;  don't  fail  to  come  to  me  as  soon  as  you  get  this. 

I  enquired  the  best  way  by  land  to  New  York,  and  told 
him  to  go  to  Worcester  and  then  to  Quabog,  an  Indian 
town  where  Maj.  Willard  fought  the  Indians ;  there  is  a  pond 
and  a  stream  leading  to  Connecticut  river,  and  down  to  Hart- 
ford by  water  to  New  York,  and  to  give  this  to  you  himself. 
Say  nothing  to  him  about  me  or  that  you  ever  saw  me — but 
come  without  fail,  or,  if  I  am  gone  to  England,  be  there  as 
soon  as  possible.  Secure  the  money  and  diamonds  before 
you  come,  as  my  money  will  do  a  great  good  for  us — it 
will  buy  a  great  many  great  people  and  all  the,  poor  I  want  in 
my  favor.  Keep  dark  in  New  Y7ork,  sa}T  nothing  to  an}1  but 
my  friends — don't  fail  to  be  in  Boston  before  I  am  carried  to 
England,  as  I  can  tell  you  more  than  I  can  write,  and  better 
what  I  want.  I  told  the  man  that  brings  this  to  you,  if  he 
met  with  any  trouble  or  was  taken  by  the  Indians,  to  hide  his 
papers  in  some  safe  place  where  he  can  find  them  if  he  got 
away.  I  will  put  them  in  the  glass,  for  if  he  should  get  them 
wet  or  anything  should  happen  to  him  they  will  be  safe.  I 
•can't  think  of  anything  more  to  write  now.  but  will  tell  you 
all  when  you  come.  They  keep  me  well  and  are  kind  to  me 
here.  This  is  from  your  friend 

Robert  Kidd. 

Boston,  1700-1. 

N.  B. — Come  soon,  without  fail,  and  I  will  tell  you  more 
and  all  about  the  money.  It  is  on  Conant's  Island,  about 


THE    KIDD    LETTER.  331 

three  miles  down  the  Harbor  of  Boston — they  don't  think  it 
is  so  near  to  Boston ;  but  }^ou  must  keep  dark  here — say 
nothing  to  &T\J  one  here  about  me  till  }^ou  sea, 

R.  Kidd. 

Although  the  bitterest  cold  day  of  the  winter,  and  snow 
more  than  two  feet  deep,  and  much  drifted  across  the  hills, 
the  writer  availed  himself  of  an  invitation,  and  a  seat  in  a 
well-robed  sleigh,  and  visited  the  highest  mountain  farm 
house  in  the  town  —  the  home  of  Mr.  Samuel  Shaw — a  quiet, 
honest,  and  every  way  respectable  citizen.  We  arrived  at  the 
house  about  noon,  and  found  some  twenty  or  more  persons 
already  there,  having  come  mostl}'  from  the  villages  in  the 
valleys  from  three  to  five  miles  distant,  to  see  the  remark- 
able curiosity.  All  the  circumstances  relating  to  the  finding 
were  recounted  by  the  two  }roung  men,  and  repeated  to  every 
new  visitor.  That  lonely  farm  house  never  before  opened  its 
door  to  so  many  visitors.  Prominent  citizens,  born  in  the 
town,  were  there  for  the  first  time.  There  upon  the  table  lay 
the  broken  glass — the  cork  and  cap  of  sheet  lead,  and  the  two 
sheets  of  long  but  rather  narrow,  unruled,  cap  paper  ;  the  lat- 
ter coarse  and  of  a  dingy  white  color,  and  bore  the  stamp  of 
the  English  crown,  plain!}-  to  be  recognized  when  held  up  to 
the  light.  The  writing  was  what  would  be  called  old  English 
commercial  style,  "a.  fair  round  hand,"  like  unto  that  of  the 
commander  of  the  Pinafore.  No  one  who  saw  that  letter 
doubted  of  its  antiquity  and  genuineness  ;  that  it  was  found 
by  the  boys  as  described,  and  that  it  had  lain  in  the  silence 
of  the  cave  of  the  mountain  for  150  years.  For  weeks  the 
house  of  Mr.  Shaw  was  besieged  by  visitors,  and  until  the 
family  became  so  much  embarrassed  thereby  that  the  docu- 
ment was  finally  sealed  up  and  deposited  in  a  bank  for  safe 
keeping. 

The  spring  of  1849  was  the  period  at  which  the  California 
fever  was  at  its  height,  and  men  were  leaving  the  country 


332  THE    KIDD    LETTER. 

towns  no  less  than  cities  by  the  hundreds  for  the  Golden  Gate. 
Among  the  large  number,  which  left  Palmer  for  that  distant 
coast,  were  the  two  young  men  who  had  found  the  Kidd  let- 
ter. Thinking  some  question  might  possibly  arise  concerning 
it  in  their  absence,  or  doubt  be  expressed  touching  the  truth 
of  their  oft  repeated  statements  of  the  circumstances  of  the 
finding  of  that  letter,  the}T  thought  it  important  and  prudent  to 
leave  behind  them  a  more  solemn  statement  of  the  facts,  and 
to  that  end  applied  to  the  writer  to  draw  up  their  respective 
formal  affidavits,  rehearsing  and  setting  forth  particularly  and 
minutely  every  fact  and  circumstance  connected  therewith, 
which  was  accordingly  done,  and  which  they  subscribed  and 
made  solemn  oath  to  before  a  magistrate,  and,  leaving  the 
same  with  their  respective  fathers,  departed  for  California. 
Whether  they  ever  returned,  the  writer  is  not  advised. 
About  the  same  time,  but  a  little  later  in  the  spring  or  early 
summer,  Mr.  Samuel  Shaw,  the  father,  for  the  first  time  in 
his  life,  made  a  trip  to  Boston,  and  visited  the  islands  in  the 
harbor,  and  especially  the  one  anciently  called  Conant's,  but 
now  Governor's  Island.  He  found,  however,  on  inquiry  and 
from  local  history,  that  there  had  been,  even  in  recent  years, 
much  change  in  the  shores  of  most  of  those  islands,  and 
especially  the  one  of  particular  interest  to  him  from  the  allu- 
sions thereto  in  the  latety  found  letter — that  more  than  sixty 
rods  of  the  northwest  corner  of  the  island  indicated  in  the 
letter  as  the  place  where  two  chests  of  treasure  had  been 
buried  had,  in  the  long  interval  of  150  years,  been  washed 
away  by  the  tide  —  in  fact,  he  was  told  by  a  resident  on  the 
island  that  more  than  thirty  rods  had  been  swept  away  from 
the  same  cause  within  the  then  last  thirty  years  —  that  the 
government  was  then  building  a  sea  wall  to  protect  that  part 
of  the  island  from  further  erosion  by  the  tides. 

Nothing  so  much  impresses  the  mind  with  the  reality  of 
the  past  as  an  ancient  manuscript,  document  or  letter,  bear- 
ing the  autograph  of  its  author,  and  the  time  and  place  of  its 


THE    KIDD    LETTER,  333 

writing  or  execution.  The  original  document  itself,  or  its 
reproduction  in  print,  indicates  as  much,  and  often  more, 
than  a  dozen  pages  of  elaboration  of  the  historian.  In  the 
document  one  sees  history — without  it,  history  is  but  imagi- 
nation— faith,  based  on  confidence,  reposed  in  the  historian 
and  his  researches  in  the  public  archives.  This  letter  of  the 
once  good  subject  of  the  king  of  England — trusted  and 
faithful  master  in  the  Commercial  Marine — the  commissioned 
commander  of  a  ship  privateering  against  the  public  enemies 
of  England,  preying  upon  the  Dutch  East  India  Company's 
ships  in  the  Indian  Ocean,  and  the  galleons  of  Spain, 
freighted  with  the  gold  of  Peru  and  the  treasures  of  Potosi 
and  Mexico,  and  ultimately  the  most  dreaded  pirate  of  the 
;seas,  brings  to  light  unfamiliar  names,  and  awakens  the 
present  generation  to  a  knowledge  of  the  long  forgotten  time 
when  Boston  and  New  York  were  compared  for  size  and  com- 
mercial importance  with  Newport,  Rhode  IslancJ,  to  the  full 
measure  of  which  the  latter  aspired,  and  whose  early  land 
speculators  and  Indian  traders  prophesied  their  ultimate 
.attainment. 

There  can  be  no  doubt  of  the  genuineness  of  the  Kidd  let- 
ter, and  that  it  was  found  near  the  ancient  highway  in  the 
town  of  Palmer,  Mass.,  as  before  related,  for  the  absolute 
honesty  and  sincerity  of  the  two  young  men  is  not  to  be 
-questioned  ;  besides  there  was  not  a  person  in  the  town,  nor 
Tvithin  a  hundred  miles  of  it,  possessed  of  the  specific 
colonial  historical  information  of  a  hundred  and  fifty  years 
previous,  who  could,  or  would  undertake  to  perpetrate  a 
fraud  and  imposition  by  the  manufacture  of  such  a  docu- 
ment, nor  a  person  living  on  earth  who  would  select  such  a 
place  for  its  concealment  with  any  hope  or  expectation  that  at 
;some  indefinite  time  thereafter  a  rabbit  and  dog,  supplemented 
by  two  young  hunters,  in  a  cold  and  cheerless  winter's  day, 
upon  the  side  of  a  desolate  and  lonely  mountain,  would  bring 
it  forth  to  astonish  and  deceive  an  honest  and  intelligent 


334  THE    KIDD    LETTER. 

community.  But,  though  undisputed  and  undoubted  at  the- 
time  by  hundreds  of  gentlemen  who  visited  the  place  and 
examined  and  read  the  paper,  let  us  notice  some  of  its  pecu- 
liarities and  the  internal  evidences  of  the  genuineness  of  the 
letter.  First,  its  enclosure  in  glass  and  sealing  is  after  the 
manner  of  a  seaman  :  its  peculiar  date,  1700-1,  indicating,, 
though  the  month  and  da}^  was  omitted,  that  it  was  at  the 
point  of  the  annual  period,  when,  under  the  "old  style,"  it 
would  be  1700,  and  under  the  "new  style"  1701,  and  the 
character  of  the  handwriting.  The  whole  tenor  of  the  com- 
munication —  specific  —  peculiar — solicitous — anxious  — j  ust 
such  a  letter  as  such  a  character  would  be  likely  to  write 
under  like  circumstances,  and  just  such  as  the  facts  of  his- 
tory will  show  to  have  existed  at  the  moment,  and  prior  and 
subsequent  thereto.  Then,  again,  the  names  of  persons 
therein  alluded  to — some  known  to  history,  others  not — like- 
wise the  nanies  of  Indian  localities  and  battle  grounds  in  the 
description  of  the  ancient  route  from  Boston  to  New  York. 

John  Baile}T,  Esq.,  to  whom  the  letter  is  addressed,  is  un- 
known at  present,  it  not  appearing  in  any  history  of  New 
York  of  those  early  times.  Col.  Henry  Slaughter,  or 
Sloughter  as  now  printed,  was  Governor  of  New  York  by 
commission  of  King  William,  from  Aug.,  1689,  to  July,  1691. 
John  Nichols,  Esq.,  was  doubtless  a  lawyer,  and  brother  or 
son  of  William  Nicolls,  member  of  Governor  Slaughter's 
council,  and  at  one  time  charged  with  complicity  with  pirates  ; 
and  James  Bayard,  whose  name  does  not  appear  in  the  his- 
tory of  New  York,  was  likewise,  probably,  of  the  family  of 
Col.  Nicholas  Bayard,  also  a  member  of  the  council  under 
several  Governors  between  1689  and  1700,  a  prominent  poli- 
tician and  a  man  of  great  energy  and  talent,  and  charged  in 
the  political  asperities  of  the  time  of  acquiring  wealth  by  his- 
interests  in  piratical  ships.  Capt.  Houson,  or  Hewson,  was 
doubtless  a  retired  sea  rover,  and  Edward  Teach,  afterwards  a 
known  pirate,  and  whose  testimony  might  be  useful  to  Kidd. 


THE    KIDD    LETTER.  335 

Finally  the  description  of  the  route  given  the  earner  of  the  let- 
ter. Who,  after  1 50  years,  would  attempt  to  deceive  by  de- 
scribing an  Indian  trail  forgotten  by  five  generations,  or  even 
recall  to  mind  the  fact  that  Maj.  Willard  fought  the  warriors 
of  King  Philip  at  Quabog,  some  ten  miles  east  of  Palmer,  the 
name  alone  being  preserved  to  later  generations  only  by  the 
pond  and  the  Quabog  Seminary  in  the  town  of  Warren  ? 
Finally  Lord  Bellamont,  or  Bellomont.  He  had  been  a  cour- 
tier and  created  an  Earl  by  King  William.  He  had  been 
treasurer  and  receiver-general  for  Queen  Mary,  and  a  confi- 
dential friend  of  the  king,  and  was  esteemed  the  most  hon- 
est, as  well  as  able,  man  about  the  court.  The  little  town  of 
New  York,  with  its  great  harbor  and  deep  rivers,  was  the  ren- 
dezvous no  less  of  pirates  than  privateers,  and  Bellomont 
was  appointed  Governor  as  being  the  most  likely  to  suppress 
piracy.  He  arrived  in  New  York  in  the  spring  of  1698.  His 
jurisdiction  embraced  likewise  the  New  England  colonies,  so 
that  he  alternated  between  Boston  and  New  York,  going  over 
land,  by  the  route  heretofore  described,  accompanied  by  a 
retinue  of  officials  and  Lady  Bellomont,  all  on  horseback, 
very  imposing,  and  making  a  sensation  in  the  few  incipient 
towns  and  villages  through  which  the  royal  cavalcade 
passed. 

Since  piracy  has  for  long  years  been  swept  from  the  seas  in 
every  part  of  the  globe  by  long-ranged  guns  and  ships  pro- 
pelled by  steam,  it  has  become  a  sort  of  dim  and  forgotten 
history,  and  it  is  difficult  at  this  day  to  appreciate  the  dis- 
turbed condition  of  commerce  200  years  ago,  or  to  realize  that 
the  little  Dutch  village  on  the  tip  end  of  Manhattan  Island, 
then  but  recently  transferred  from  Holland  to  England,  now 
the  commercial  emporium  of  the  continent,  was,  from  1680  to 
1700,  not  only  the  rendezvous  of  pirates,  but  also  of  priva- 
teers,— licensed  pirates — authorized  by  governments  to  prey 
upon  the  commerce  of  those  countries  at  war ;  that  the 
scandal  of  the  times  charged  not  only  governor,  council  and 


336  THE    KIDD    LETTER. 

officials,  but  mercantile  houses  with  being  interested  in  the 
profits  of,  and  protecting  pirates,  and  that  their  wives  and 
daughters  luxuriated  in  the  silks  and  diamonds  of  the  Orient, 
plundered  from  the  merchantmen  in  the  straits  of  Madagas- 
car. The  one  lone  minister  of  the  Gospel  of  the  Dutch 
Church,  Domine  Selyns,  in  1696,  wrote  to  Holland — "Morals 
have  much  degenerated,  and  evil  practices  have  been  intro- 
duced by  strangers  and  privateersmen.  Our  calamities 
spring  from  the  bottomless  pool  of  heaven-high  sins,  foreign, 
but  nevertheless  without  the  suspicion  of  foreigners.  Money 
increases,  high  houses  are  built,  and  land  is  made  in  the 
ivater." 

Piracy  had  long  been  in  existence.  It  was,  moreover,  in- 
directly encouraged  by  all  European  governments  in  that  in 
time  of  war  they  could  annoy  the  commerce  of  the  enem}' 
without  trouble  or  expense  by  licensing  practical  piracy.  Pri- 
vate armed  vessels  sometimes  licensed,  often  unlicensed, 
roved  the  seas  and  robbed  and  plundered  at  pleasure.  Man}T 
of  these  free-sailors  held  commissions  from  the  King  of  Eng- 
land to  annoy  France.  Presently  the  ships  of  all  nations 
were  seized,  plundered,  and  sunk  or  burned,  not  excepting 
those  of  Great  Britain  herself. 

The  little  incipient  city  of  New  York,  its  great  harbor,  its 
rivers  and  creeks,  sheltered  b}'  primeval  forests,  furnished  the 
best  facilities  for  fitting  out  privateering  crafts,  was  the 
natural  place  for  rendezvous  on  this  continent,  and  the  very 
Ibest  place  to  secrete  or  sell  the  goods  and  treasures  obtained 
in  such  nefarious  enterprises.  We  are  apt  to  think  the 
country  in  later  years  has  had  some  experience,  even  if  the 
people  do  not  seem  to  have  gained  a  great  amount  of  practi- 
cal wisdom  as  the  result ;  but  early  colonial  New  York  had 
an  experience  strikingly  parallel  with  our  own.  Land  grab- 
bing by  court  favorites,  holding  their  grants  from  the  king, 
•of  lordly  manors,  from  twenty  to  forty  miles  square,  on  the 
Hudson  or  Long  Island,  subject  only  to  the  Indian  title, 


THE    KIDD    LETTER.  337 

which  was  readily  .quit-claimed  for  a  few  gallons  of  rum  and 
a  basket  full  of  small  trinkets  —  the  whole  of  Manhattan 
Island,  some  20,000  acres,  having  been  purchased  by  Gov- 
ernor Peter  Minuet,  for  the  Dutch  West  India  Company,  for 
twenty -four  dollars  worth  of  beads  and  baubles  only  about 
fifty  years  before — privateering,  protecting  pirates,  and  mer- 
chandising in  their  plunder,  was  the  food  and  stimulant  for 
politics  and  scandal  during  a  portion  of  the  infancy  of  our 
modern  commercial  emporium.  Tweedism,  Credit-Mobilier, 
railroad  subsidies,  salan-  grab,  and  star  route  "  contracts  "  of 
recent  times  had  counterpart  and  parallel  in  colonial  New 
York  just  prior  to  the  year  1700. 

Piracy,  politics,  and  scandal  culminatod  under  the  admin- 
istration of  Governor  Fletcher,  prior  to  the  arrival  of  Bello- 
mont  in  1698.  Fletcher  was  accused  of  conspiracy  with 
pirates — having  encouraged  and  protected  them,  and  profited 
thereby.  He  had  commissioned  sea  captains  to  raise  men 
and  act  as  privateers  against  the  French — he  had  accepted 
bonds,  and  promised  protection.  Subsequently  he  was  called 
to  account  by  the  Lords  of  Trade,  but  he  succeeded  for  a 
time  in  denying  to  their  satisfaction  that  he  had  ever  aided 
known  pirates.  But  later,  when  some  of  the  most  high- 
handed sea-robbers,  such  as  Tew  and  others,  had  been  over- 
taken by  government,  commissions  and  other  papers  were 
found  establishing  the  Governor's  complicity  in  their  crimes. 
Tew  was  a  dashing  young  fellow,  agreeable,  companionable, 
with  considerable  education  and  not  a  few  personal  accom- 
plishments, and  it  had  been  early  noticed  that  when  Capt.  Tew 
was  in  port  he  was  entertained,  dined  and  wined,  by  some  of 
the  great  traders  and  the  lords  of  manors,  at  their  great 
manor  houses  in  the  forests  up  the  Hudson,  at  Morriseana, 
be}rond  Spuyten  Duyvil  Creek,  and  upon  Long  Island,  and 
in  "  Breckelin  "  heights  and  banks  opposite  the  city.  It  was 
in  proof  that  Capt.  Tew,  at  one  of  his  visits,  had  presented 
the  Governor  with  a  curious  and  costly  watch,  and  rumoi 
22 


338  THE    KIDD    LETTER. 

had  it,  though  not  quite  proved,  that  Mrs.  Fletcher  and  her 
two  handsome  daughters  had  received,  at  the  hands  of  the  fas- 
cinating pirate,  valuable  jewels.  Tew  subsequently  went  to 
the  Indian  Ocean,  where,  harboring  himself  with  others- 
among  the  creeks  of  Madagascar,  "  he  plundered  and  mur- 
dered till  humanity  refuses  to  blot  the  pages  of  history  with 
his  deeds."  Governor  Fletcher,  admitting  of  necessity  the 
social  entertaining  of  the  pirate  and  the  attentions  bestowed 
upon  him  by  his  wife  and  daughters,  justified  under  the  pious 
plea  that  his  object  had  been  to  convert  Capt.  Tew  from  the 
error  of  his  ways,  and  especially  to  reclaim  him  from  the 
"  vile  habit  of  swearing  "  !  No  sooner  was  Governor  Fletcher 
implicated  than  some  of  the  wealthiest,  and  hitherto  most 
respectable  citizens  of  New  York  were  accused  of  sharing  in 
the  spoils  of  ocean  robbery.  Every  new  development 
seemed  to  justify  the  suspicion.  The  remarkable  influx  of 
strangers,  the  increasing  quantity  of  rich  goods  exposed  for 
sale,  the  rapid  erection  of  expensive  buildings,  and  the  free 
circulation  of  Oriental  gold  pieces,  pointed  in  the  same  direc- 
tion. It  was  further  claimed  that  Governor  Fletcher  had 
received  large  sums  of  money  for  protecting  pirates,  whenever 
they  chose  to  land  in  New  York  to  dispose  of  their  spoils ; 
that  one  pirate  had  given  him  a  ship,  which  he  had  sold  for 
8,000  pounds.  It  was,  moreover,  among  the  scandals  of  the 
times,  currently  reported  that  the  great  merchant-vessels  of 
New  York,  which  went  to  Madagascar  for  negroes,  bought 
goods  of  the  pirates,  and  that  the  owners  of  those  vessels  had 
money  interest  in  the  pirate  vessels.  William  Nicolls,  before 
mentioned,  was  charged  with  having  been  Fletcher's  chief 
broker  in  the  matter  of  protections,  and  the  place  of  rendez- 
vous where  he  had  often  held  interviews  with  piratical  cap- 
tains on  Long  Island  shores,  was  confidently  pointed  out 
to  Governor  Bellomont  when  he  arrived. 

The  English  government  became  aroused,  but  not  until 
ocean  commerce  was  nearly  destroyed,  nor,  in  fact,  until  the 


THE    KIDD    LETTER.  339 

pirates  had  destroyed  some  ships  of  the  Mogul  in  the  Indian 
Ocean,  one  in  particular  that  he  was  sending  laden  with 
presents  to  Mecca.  Among  the  first  acts  of  King  William 
was  to  send  Vice-Admiral  John  Neville,  with  an  armed  fleet, 
to  protect  the  galleons  of  Spain  (then  England's  ally) 
against  the  French  cruisers.  After  convoying  some  home- 
ward-bound merchant  vessels  to  a  certain  latitude,  he  pro- 
ceeded with  his  fleet  to  the  West  Indies  ;  but  the  jealous 
Spanish  governor  at  Havana  refused  to  accept  the  proffered 
protection  of  the  galleons,  and  he  steered  to  Virginia.  It  is 
said,  upon  the  authority  of  records  in  the  archives  of  Spain, 
that  these  galleons  had  treasure  to  the  amount  of  50,000,000 
Spanish  dollars — the  richest  fleet  of  the  age — and  that  the 
reason  for  the  refusal  to  put  them  under  the  protection 
of  a  British  fleet  was  the  jealousy  of  the  Spaniards.  They 
would  not  permit  a  representative  of  England  to  have 
absolute  control  of  so  rich  a  fleet,  and  of  the  place  of  the 
greatest  importance  in  the  West  Indies,  which  would  have 
been  the  case  had  Admiral  Neville  been  admitted  into  the 
harbor. 

Vice-Admiral  Neville  was  a  descendant  of  Gilbert  de 
Neville,  who  was  admiral  of  the  fleet  of  William  the  Con- 
queror, 1066.  Soon  after  his  arrival  in  Hampton  Roads  he 
died,  Aug.,  1697,  and  was  buried  at  Hampton,  Virginia,  and 
black  marble  tablets,  with  inscriptions  and  his  coat  of  arms 
engraved  thereon,  mark  his  resting  place  unto  this  day. 
The  inscription  reads  thus :  "  Here  lies  ye  body  of  John 
Neville,  Esq.,  Vice-Admiral  of  His  Majesty's  fleet,  and  Com- 
mander-in-Chief  of  ye  squadron  cruising  in  the  West  Indies, 
who  died  on  board  ye  Cambridge,  ye  17  day  of  August,  1697, 
in  ye  ninth  year  of  ye  reign  of  King  William  ye  Third,  aged 
57  years."  So,  after  the  lapse  of  180  years,  it  comes  to  light 
that  while  Hampton,  Virginia,  holds  the  ashes  of  the 
renowned  Vice-Admiral  of  England,  Palmer,  Massachusetts, 
has  held  during  the  long  period,  in  the  cave  of  the  mountain, 


340.  THE    KIDD    LETTER. 

» 

the  written  record  of  his  more  generally  remembered,  but  less 
worthy  cotemporary,  Robert  Kidd. 

As  the  corsairs  in  the  Indian  Ocean  were  known  to  that 
Eastern  Monarch  to  be  Englishmen,  as,  in  fact,  were  nearly 
all  pirates  in  those  as  well  as  the  Atlantic  waters,  he  had 
given  notice  of  his  intention  to  take  reprisals  for  damages, 
and  the  English  government  found  it  necessary  to  send  a 
man-of-war  to  the  East  to  put  a  stop  to  the  English  piracy 
there.  But  Parliament  had  already  so  appropriated  the 
nation's  funds,  that  there  was  no  money  for  the  purpose. 
Whereupon  the  King  himself  proposed  to  his  counsellors  that 
they  should  make  it  a  private  undertaking,  and  to  that  end 
subscribed  3,000  pounds  himself,  and  Lord  Somers  and  the 
Earls  of  Oxford,  Rumne}',  and  Bellomont,  who  had  at  this 
time  been  appointed  governor  but  had  not  yet  been  com- 
missioned, with  Robert  Livingston,  who  was  at  the  English 
Court  at  that  time,  the  necessary  balance.  Then  they  cast 
about  for  a  competent  commander,  and  an  energetic  business 
man  to  put  the  enterprise  into  operation.  Livingston  intro- 
duced Capt.  Kidd  to  Lord  Bellomont,  and  recommended  him 
as  a  fit  man  to  command  the  expedition.  Livingston  said 
Kidd  had  sailed  a  packet  from  New  York  to  London  for  some 
years,  was  known  to  be  honorable  and  brave,  had  been  in  the 
Eastern  seas,  and  knew  the  haunts  and  habits  of  the  pirates 
in  those  waters,  and  was  ready  to  untertake  the  service.  He 
was  accordingly  employed,  and  was  commissioned  by  the 
Admiralty  to  act  against  the  French,  and  another  commission 
was  given  him  under  the  Great  Seal,  dated  January  26,  1696, 
authorizing  him  to  apprehend  all  pirates  wherever  he  should 
find  them,  and  bring  them  to  trial.  Livingston  entered  into 
bonds  with  Capt.  Kidd  to  Bellomont,  to  account  strictly  for 
all  prizes  secured.  The  commission  recites  Kidd's  powers  as 
Lord  High  Admiral  of  England,  and  his  office  as  a  private- 
man-of-war,  and  his  ship,  for  the  time  being,  the  Adventure 
Among  the  names  of  pirates  specially  cited  in  the 


THE    KIDD    LETTER.  341 

commission  for  Kidd  to  seize,  are  the  festive  Capt.  Tew,  so 
gallant  to  Mrs.  Fletcher  and  her  lovely  daughters,  and  Capt. 
Thomas  Walker,  whom  we  suspect  to  be  the  very  person 
whose  name  for  180  years  has  been  linked  in  partnership  with 
his  Satanic  Majesty  in  the  not  unfamiliar  expression,  "the 
Devil  and  Tom  Walker."  They,  the  terrors  of  the  sea, 
become  the  legends  and  myths  of  a  people  ages  after  the  orig- 
inal significance  is  lost.  It  was  stipulated  among  the  sub- 
scribers to  the  fund,  and  provided  for  in  a  grant  under  the 
Great  Seal,  that  all  property  taken  from  the  pirates  should 
vest  in  the  parties  at  whose  cost  the  vessel  was  fitted  out,  the 
king  to  receive  one-tenth  of  the  proceeds. 

Kidd  set  sail  in  the  spring  of  1696,  under  very  brilliant 
auspices.  He  stopped  in  New  York  and  shipped  ninety 
additional  men,  and  in  July  put  to  sea  on  his  fatal  mission. 
The  undertaking  was  in  itself  innocent  and  meritorious;  but 
the  sequel — how,  instead  of  suppressing  piracy,  he  became 
the  prince  of  pirates,  and  nearly  involved,  not  only  the  Lords 
of  Trade,  but  even  the  king  of  England  himself,  in  the 
blackest  of  charges — is  well  known.  The  subject  was  dis- 
cussed by  commercial  men  and  the  people  until,  in  the  House 
of  Commons,  it  was  voted  as  highly  criminal,  and  but  for 
energetic  action  on  the  part  of  a  few,  would  have  condemned 
its  projectors  forever. 

From  the  days  of  Columbus  and  Vespucius,  Vasquez  de 
Gama  and  Magellan — from  the  Cabots  to  Henry  Hudson — 
through  all  the  times  of  English  discovery  and  colonization — 
from  Capt.  John  Smith,  of  Pocahontas  fame,  to  Kidd,  and  the 
opening  of  the  eighteenth  century,  the  commanders  of  the 
merchant  marine  of  England,  no  less  than  her  Raleighs, 
Penns  and  Baltimores,  patentees  of  mighty  domains,  and 
chiefs  of  colonizing  enterprises  in  America,  and  her  com- 
manders of  ships  of  war,  and  her  Admirals  of  the  seas,  were 
men  of  education  and  often  of  accomplishments.  They  were 
of  the  best  houses  and  homes  of  England.  They  were  men 


342  THE    KIDD    LETTER. 

of  enterprise,  inspired  by  the  wealth  of  the  Indias,  of  Mexico 
and  Peru,  whose  highways  were  the  oceans.  Kidd  himself 
was  no  ordinary  man.  He  was  born  in  London,  about  the 
time  of  the  great  fire  in  1666,  and  was  probably  a  little  over 
thirty  years  of  age  when  he  received  his  commission  from 
King  William.  He  was  an  attractive  and  cultivated  man, 
who  had  already  held  commercial  responsibilities  and  com- 
mands in  the  Eastern  seas,  and  of  packets  between  the  West 
Indies,  London  and  New  York.  He  had  a  comfortable  and 
pleasant  home  on  Liberty  street,  New  York,  besides  other 
houses  and  lots,  as  it  appears  that  Attorney  General  Bough- 
ton,  in  1702,  wrote  the  Lords  of  Trade  for  permission  to 
occupy  "  one  of  Captain  Kidd's  vacant  dwellings ; "  indicat- 
ing rather  desirable  property.  He  had  also  a  wife,  beautiful, 
accomplished,  and  of  the  highest  respectability.  She  was 
Sarah  Oort,  the  widow  of  one  of  his  fellow-officers  ;  they  were 
married  in  1691,  and,  at  the  time  of  his  departure  for  the 
Eastern  Ocean  in  pursuance  of  the  royal  commission,  they 
had  one  charming  little  daughter.  He  was  an  intimate  of 
Robert  Livingston,  the  first  lord  of  the  manor  of  160,000  acres 
of  the  finest  land  on  the  banks  of  the  Hudson,  in  the  midst 
of  scenery  unsurpassed — of  Van  Rensselaer — of  Schuyler — of 
Governor  Sloughter  and  his  successors — Graham,  Actorney 
General,  and  all  the  great  merchants  and  manor  lords.  He 
was,  like  Livingston,  an  opponent  of  the  corrupt  administra- 
tion of  Governor  Fletcher,  and  doubtless  accompanied  Liv- 
ingston to  England  to  secure  the  removal  of  that  official, 
and  which  resulted  in  Bellomont  as  his  successor,  and 
likewise  the  commission  of  Kidd  for  the  suppression  of  the 
pirates. 

Kidd  had  been  gone  on  his  mission  to  the  Eastern  ocean 
two  years  when  Lord  Bellomont  arrived  in  New  York,  in  the 
spring  of  1698.  He  was  accompanied  by  Lady  Bellomont  and 
a  retinue.  A  pretentious  dinner  was  given  him  by  the  cor- 
poration, at  which  one  hundred  and  fifty  persons  assisted — 


THE    KIDD    LETTER.  343 

the  bill  of  fare  embracing  every  imaginable  viand  and  game 
from  beef  to  sausage,  and  from  venison  to  duck,  with  pastry 
and  puddings,  and  the  choicest  of  wines — such  as  would 
astonish  the  patrons  of  Delmonico  to-day.  History  records 
Bellomont  as  a  genuine  nobleman — a  master  of  the  art  of 
politeness,  who  knew  how  to  make  even  the  commonest  man 
or  woman  feel  that  they  were  the  objects  of  his  special 
regard — of  attractive,  commanding  presence,  large-sized, 
somewhat  above  the  ordinary  height,  with  finely-shaped  and 
well-poised  head,  a  face  stamped  with  iron  firmness,  dark, 
magnetic,  kindly,  expressive  eyes,  and  small,  soft  white 
hands.  He  was,  withal,  very  humorous,  and  an  admirable 
story  teller,  and  enjoyed  a  hearty  laugh,  like  most  persons 
who  are  not  afflicted  in  mind,  body,  or  estate.  He  bore  him- 
self with  becoming  dignity,  and  was  greatly  admired  for  the 
ease  and  grace  exhibited  in  his  equestrian  exercises.  He 
dressed  with  elegance  and  good  taste,  and  his  table  was 
filled  with  the  choicest  of  viands,  and  it  was  served  with 
as  much  ceremonj7  as  the  king's  own.  His  equipage  was 
magnificent.  His  coach  and  six  threw  up  the  dust  of  the 
unpaved  streets  to  the  delight  and  pride  of  loyal  Englishmen, 
and  the  astonishment  of  the  Dutch  burgers,  and  the  descend- 
ants of  Wouter  Van  Twiller  and  the  children  of  Rip  Van 
Dam.  He  was  sixty-two  years  of  age,  but  looked  much 
younger.  Lady  Bellomont  was  still  quite  youthful,  having 
been  married  at  the  age  of  twelve.  She  was  an  elegant 
woman,  and  he  was  very  fond  and  proud  of  her.  The  lead- 
ing New  York  families  gave  a  series  of  stately  dinner  parties, 
and  the  first  few  weeks  of  their  American  life  were  more 
pleasant  than  any  which  came  afterwards. 

Bellomont's  administration  was  a  brief  and  unhappy  one. 
He  had  been  accustomed  to  see  power  constantly  associated 
with  pomp,  and  could  not  realize  that  the  substance  existed 
unless  the  people  were  dazzled  by  the  trappings.  His  mind 
was  upright,  and  he  had  a  desire  for  justice,  but  he  was  not 


344  THE    KIDD    LETTER. 

a  good  judge  of  men — was  hasty  and  impulsive,  and  often 
acted  upon  hearing  one  side  of  a  ease — was  soon  swept  into 
the  whirlpool  of  colonial  politics,  and,  as  was  soon  found,  he 
had  the  backing  of  neither  part}- .  Sincerely  he  undertook  the 
reformation  of  the  city  and  province.  He  listened  to  exag- 
gerated complaints,  and  impulsively  acted  without  proof. 
He  had  his  suspicions  of  the  great  merchants,  of  which  he 
made  no  secret,  for  he  saw  too  much  Arabian  gold  and  rich 
East  India  goods  for  either  honest  or  healthful  trade,  and  he 
set  about  searching  for  the  hidden  pools  of  corruption.  He 
soon  found  that  the  great  landed  lords,  who  represented  the 
aristocracy,  were  in  sympathy  with  the  merchants — and  worse 
still  the  members  of  his  council  were  reticent,  and  even  indif- 
ferent to  the  measures  he  proposed  ;  that  some,  or  all,  of  them 
almost  daily  conferred  with  the  deposed  Governor  Fletcher, 
who  had  not  yet  sailed  for  England.  He  caused  the  seizure 
of  ships  and  goods  which  caused  great  commotion  among  the 
merchants.  Some  of  his  agents  and  officers  were  so  much  in 
sympathy  with  the  merchants  that  goods,  diamonds,  and  other 
rich  treasures,  were  suffered  to  be  taken  from  the  ships  by 
the  merchants  and  secreted  after  seizure.  Bellomont  was 
indignant,  but  the  merchants  were  wrath}',  and  almost  raised 
a  mutiny  over  the  governor's  proceedings.  He  wrote  to  the 
Lords  of  Trade,  May  9,  1698  :  "  Colonel  Nicolls  ought  to  be 
sent  with  Colonel  Fletcher  a  criminal  prisoner  to  England  for 
trial,  but  the  gentlemen  of  the  council  are  tender  of  him,  as 
he  is  connected  by  marriage  to  several  of  them,  and  I  am 
prevailed  upon  to  accept  £2,000  for  his  appearance  here  when 
demanded.  He  is  a  man  of  good  sense  and  knowledge  of  the 
law,  but  has  been  a  great  instrument  and  contriver  of  unjust 
and  corrupt  practices." 

Soon  Bellomont  discovered  that  the  merchants  had  exten- 
sively signed  petitions  to  the  king  for  his  recall.  He  was 
specially  indignant  towards  Colonel  Bayard,  of  the  council, 
therefor,  and  removed  him  with  others  from  the  council, 


THE    KIDD    LETTER.  345 

charging  them  with  giving  protection  to  pirates — giving 
credence  to  the  rumor  that  a  beautiful  diamond,  worn  by  Mrs. 
Bayard,  was  one  which  the  pirates  had  taken  from  an 
Arabian  princess,  and  was  the  price  paid  to  Bayard  for  ob- 
taining the  murderer's  protection — that  Minvielle,  another  of 
the  dismissed  members,  possessed  a  large  box  of  Arabian 
gold  pieces,  obtained  in  a  similar  manner.  At  this  time  it 
had  become  known,  both  in  New  York  and  England,  that 
Captain  Kidd  had  raised  the  black  flag  of  piracy  in  the 
Indian  Ocean,  and  Bayard  hurled  back  to  the  Governor  the 
charge  not  only  of  conspiracy  with  pirates,  but  partnership 
in  that  fatal  enterprise.  This  was  a  severe  blow  to  Bello- 
mont,  as  he  could  not  deny  his  connection  with  its  inception 
and  organization,  though  under  the  legitimate  name  and 
object  of  a  privateer.  Livingston,  who  was  surety  for  Kidd 
and  a  subscriber  to  the  fund,  was  appointed  to  the  council  by 
the  Governor,  and  this  gave  force  to  Bayard's  charge. 
Bellomont  wrote  to  the  king :  "I  am  obliged  to  stand  upon 
my  own  legs,  my  assistants  hinder  me,  the  people  oppose  me, 
and  the  merchants  threaten  me.  It  is,  indeed,  uphill  work." 
Bellomont  further  succeeded  in  making  himself  obnoxious  to 
the  landed  aristocracy.  He  believed  that  much  of  their 
wealth  had  been  dishonorably  obtained.  The  enormous 
landed  estates  were  detrimental,  in  his  judgement,  to  the 
prosperity  of  the  colony.  Men  of  small  means  could  not  get 
a  foothold  in  the  province.  Every  acre  of  government  land 
had  been  granted  away  to  feudal  lords,  in  many  instances 
in  tracts  from  twenty  to  forty  miles  square.  This  he  deemed 
a  fatal  policy,  and  he  leveled  a  blow  at  the  great  landlords 
by  an  attempt  to  break  all  existing  grants  by  a  bill  to  pro- 
hibit any  one  person  from  holding  more  than  one  thou- 
sand acres.  This  was  too  much  for  the  lords  of  the  province 
— the  gentlemen  of  tenantry  and  negro  slaves,  of  gilded  trap- 
pings, coats  of  arms,  and  coaches-and-six — and  terrific  oppo- 
sition from  this  quarter,  no  less  than  from  the  merchantsr 


346  THE    KIDD    LETTER. 

together  with  the  gout,  made  the  governor's  official  life  in 
New  York  one  of  unhappiness. 

As  Bellomont  was  also  Governor  of  Massachusetts,  he  was 
thankful  when  the  time  came  for  him  to  attend  to  that  part 
of  his  commission.  So,  in  1699,  accompanied  by  Lady  Bello- 
mont and  a  large  retinue,  he  made  the  overland  journev  to 
Boston,  where  he  was  well  received,  and  remained  a  year  and 
•enjoyed  official  honors  and  a  peaceful  life. 

The  literature  of  piracy  is  not  very  interesting  reading,  and 
for  nearly  one  hundred  and  fifty  years,  and  until  in  modern 
days,  when  old  colonial  records  have  been  brought  to  light 
.and  published  by  antiquarian  societies,  but  little  was  known 
of  Captain  Kidd,  and  that  only  such  as  came  down  by  means 
of  legends  embalmed  in  the  old  songs,  rehearsed  by  rural 
lads  before  the  era  of  the  "  dime  novel."  But  now  as  much 
is  known  of  Kidd  and  his  career  as  of  Warren  Hastings,  and 
his  plunderings  of  the  Rahjas  and  Nabobs  of  India,  disclosed 
in  the  speeches  of  Burke  and  Sheridan  in  the  great  impeach- 
ment case  of  thirteen  years'  duration.  Kidd,  upon  leaving 
New  York,  operated  for  considerable  time  along  the  southern 
•coast,  in  the  line  of  the  West  India  commerce,  and  did  much 
useful  service  in  protecting  the  same,  made  reprisals,  for 
which  his  services  were  acknowledged  b}'  the  Colonial  Assem- 
Tbly  of  New  York  in  voting  him  £250.  Then,  business 
becoming  dull  in  that  quarter,  he  sailed  to  the  Cape  de  Verd 
Islands,  and  finally  to  Madagascar,  the  great  rendezvous  of 
pirates.  Contrary  to  his  expectation  he  found  no  pirates 
there  at  the  time,  all  being  out  in  search  of  spoil,  so  he  made 
for  the  coast  of  Malabar.  While  cruising  near  the  island  of 
Johanna,  between  Malabar  and  Madagascar,  he  met  several 
India  ships  richly  laden,  but  these  he  passed  without  violence, 
though  he  might  have  captured  them  with  little  trouble. 
'Thus  far  he  had  proved  faithful  to  the  trust  imposed  in  him, 
but  finding  his  success  not  equal  to  his  anticipations,  and 
that  his  men  were  getting  tired  of  spending  their  time  with- 


THE    KJDD    LETTER.  347 

-out  any  remuneration,  and  possibly  troubled  with  forebodings 
of  disappointment  to  the  subscribers  to  the  enterprise,  he 
resolved  to  change  his  measures  and  reap  a  harvest  one  way 
if  he  could  not  another.  The  apparent  difference  between 
privateering  and  piracy  being  so  slight,  and  the  dangers  and 
hazards  of  the  service  being  exactly  alike,  his  men  readily 
fell  in  with  the  purposes  he  then  disclosed  to  them.  He  then 
sailed  to  an  island  near  the  mouth  of  the  Red  Sea,  his 
designs,  being  upon  the  Mocha  fleet,  but  finding  the  same 
under. a  convoy  of  two  English  and  Dutch  men-of-war,  he 
was  obliged  to  make  his  retreat.  Having  commenced  an  un- 
lawful career,  he  resolved  to  go  on,  whatever  might  be  the 
•consequences.  The  better,  however,  to  retain  his  good  rep- 
utation at  home,  and  to  deceive  those  with  whom  he  might 
•chance  to  meet  upon  the  seas,  he  changed  his  name  from 
William  to  Robert  Kidd— by  the  latter  name  he  was  ever 
afterwards  known  among  his  accomplices,  both  by  sea  and 
land.  This  also  is  in  accordance  with  the  old  ballad — 

"My  name  was  Robert  Kidd,  as  I  sailed." 

His  depredations  extended  from  the  Eastern  Ocean,  back  and 
along  the  Atlantic  coast  of  South  America,  through  the 
Bahamas  and  the  whole  West  Indies.  His  piracy  became  so 
alarming  that  Parliament  was  moved  to  inquire  into  the  com- 
mission that  was  given  him,  and  the  persons  who  fitted  him 
•out.  These  proceedings  so  irritated  the  projectors  and  sub- 
scribers, that  the  king,  who  was  one  of  the  number,  was 
induced  to  issue  a  proclamation,  offering  full  pardon  to  all 
such  pirates  as  should  voluntarily  surrender  themselves 
before  the  last  day  of  April,  1699 — limited,  however,  to  cer- 
tain latitudes  and  longitudes,  and  excepting  Avery  and  Kidd. 
This  proclamation  was  issued  Dec.  8,  1698.  Several  men-of- 
ivar  were  sent  out  with  commissions  to  extend  the  king's 
pardon  to  such  as  would  willingly  surrender,  and  to  bring  in 
all  others.  None  of  these,  however,  fell  in  with  Captain  Kidd. 


348  THE    KIDD    LETTER. 

Meantime  the  ship  of  Kidd  was  being  filled  with  costly 
spoil — bags  of  gold  and  silver.  He  captured  some  Indian 
ships,  richly  laden  with* gold  dust  and  ivory — French  and 
Moorish  vessels — and  a  Spanish  vessel  from  which  he  took 
ten  bags  of  Spanish  silver  coin,  besides  rich  dry  goods  and 
provisions — the  ships  were  stripped  of  their  sails,  cordage, 
etc.,  and  then  burnt.  At  one  of  the  Dutch  spice  islands  he 
learned  that  news  had  reached  England  concerning  his  opera- 
tions and  that  several  men-of-war  had  been  sent  out  to  take 
him.  On  receiving  this  information  he  sailed  for  New 
York.  He  had  not  probably  been  informed  of  the  king's 
proclamation,  for  had  he  known  of  his  being  excepted  in  it,  he 
would  not  have  run  the  risk  of  a  return.  But  relyftig  upon  his 
interest  with  Bellomont  and  other  subscribers,  he  doubtless 
thought  they  would  be  able  to  convince  the  Crown  that  his 
career  had  been  but  that  of  legal  piracy  or  privateering. 
When  he  returned  from  the  East,  he  had,  probably,  more 
valuable  spoil  than  ever  fell  to  the  lot  of  any  other  pirate, 
ancient  or  modern,  on  sea  or  land.  His  gains  in  about  three 
years  have,  probably,  never  been  surpassed  by  any  gentleman 
in  Wall  street. 

On  his  homeward  bound  passage  he  made  the  West 
India  islands,  where  he  left  one  ship  loaded  with  treasure, 
which  he  had  run  into  a  secure  and  lonely  ba}r,  to  await 
ultimate  events,  and  with  another  sailed  for  the  New  Eng- 
land coast.  Avoiding  both  New  York  and  Boston  till  he 
could  learn  something  of  the  disposition  of  the  authorities, 
and  probably  to  confer  with  those  who  had  fitted  out  his 
original  ship,  he  ran  into  a  small  bay  off  Gardiner's  island  at 
the  Eastern  end  of  Long  Island  Sound,  where  he  buried  a 
chest  of  gold,  silver  and  precious  stones.  Mr.  Gardiner  was 
entrusted  by  Kidd  with  the  secret  of  this  deposit,  and  he 
personally,  if  not  his  men,  enjoyed  the  hospitalities  of  the 
Gardiner  house,  in  return  for  which  he  made  presents  to  Mrs. 
Gardiner,  among  which  was  a  piece  of  gold  cloth  of  con- 


THE    KIDD    LETTER.  349 

,-siderable  value,  a  part  of  which  is  said  to  be  still  in  existence, 
.and  in  as  good  condition  as  when  presented  to  Mrs.  Gardiner. 
This  is  the  island  famous  as  the  feudal  estate  of  the  family 
-of  which  John  Gardiner,  with  whom  Kidd  made  a  special 
.deposit,  was  the  third  lord  of  the  manor,  and  which,  in  the 
land  grabbing  times  before  alluded  to,  the  first  lord  obtained 
of  the  Indians  for  the  consideration  of  "  one  black  dog,  one 
gun,  some  powder  and  shot,  and  a  few  Dutch  blankets — all  of 
the  value  of  $25," — or  one  dollar  more  than  was  paid  for 
Manhattan  island  a  little  before.  Land,  evidently,  was  even 
then  rising  in  value  in  the  estimation  of  chiefs  and  squaws — 
the  latter,  probably,  had  become  sharp,  and  would  not  relin- 
quish  their  right  of  dower  at  former  prices. 

From  this  island  in  the  spring  of  1699,  Kidd  com- 
municated to  Governor  Bellomont,  then  officially  residing  in 
Boston,  and  received  such  encouragement  as  to  induce  him 
to  come  to  Boston.  He  arrived  in  the  harbor  about  the  first 
of  May,  and  anchored  near  the  island  then  called  Conant's, 
now  Governor's.  He  went  to  the  city,  conferred  with  Bel- 
lomont, and  getting  a  history  of  the  Governor's  troubled 
administration  in  New  York,  and  finding  him  cramped  and 
troubled  by  charges  of  complicity  with  pirates  and  the 
especial  patron  of  the  Adventure  Galley,  and  the  community 
excited  concerning  him,  though  not  yet  arrested,  he  left  the 
city  for  a  time,  went  back  to  his  ship,  buried  his  treasure  on 
the  island  and  disposed  of  what  goods  he  could  to  persons 
along  the  coast,  and  finalty  scuttled  or  burned  the  ship.  He 
came  back  to  Boston,  living  very  quietly  and  undisturbed  for 
a  short  season  and  until  the  council  ordered  his  arrest  and 
imprisonment  July  3d,  1699.  Kidd  was  confined  in  jail  in 
Boston  a  year  and  a  half,  waiting  for  an  armed  ship  which 
Bellomont  had  sent  for  to  take  him  to  England.  Several  of 
his  crew  were  subsequently  found,  arrested  and  tried. 

Among  the  papers   of   Kidd,   seized   at  the   time   of  his 
.  arrest,  was  found  an  account  of  the  treasures  deposited  on 


350  THE    KIDD    LETTER. 

Gardiner's  Island.  Bellomont  and  his  council  appointed" 
commissioners  who  went  to  the  island  and  secured  it.  Gardi- 
ner delivered  the  treasure.  He  asked  for  a  receipt,  which  the 
commissioners  gave  him.  As  old  documents  are  most  con- 
vincing of  the  reality  of  past  transactions,  and  as  "  Kidd  and 
his  money  "  has  become  a  by- word  indicative  of  doubt  and 
distrust,  we  here  transcribe  an  honest  old  document,  still  in 
the  government  archives  of  Massachusetts  :  "  A  true  ac- 
count of  all  such  gold,  silver,  jewels  and  merchandise,  late  in 
the  possession  of  Captain  William  Kidd,  which  had  been 
seized  and  secured  by  us,  pursuant  to  an  order  from  his 
Excellency,  Kichard,  Earl  of  Bellamont,  bearing  date, 
July  7,  1699:  Received  the  17th  instant  of  Mr.  John 
Gardiner,  viz : 

No.  1.     One  bag  of  gold  dust 63f  ounces. 

"     2.     One  bag  of  corned  gold 11 

And  one  of  silver 124        " 

"     3.     One  bag  of  dust-gold 24f      " 

"     4.     One  bag  of  silver  rings  and  sundry 

precious  stones 4J      " 

"     5.     One  bag  of  unpolished  stones 

"     6.     One  piece  of  crystal,  cornelian  rings, 

two  agates,  two  amethysts. 
"     7.     One  bag  of  silver  buttons  and  lamps. 
"     8.     One  bag  of  broken  silver 

"     9.     One  bag  of  gold  bars 353£      " 

"  10.     One  do 238£      " 

"  11.     One  bag  of  dust-gold 59£      " 

"  12.     One  bag  of  silver  bars 309      " 

Samuel  Sewall,  Nathaniel  Byfield,  Jeremiah  Dummer, 
Andrew  Belcher,  Commissioners. 

Familiar  old  colonial  names — the  same  Judge  Sewall  who 
tried  the  witches  of  Salem — indicted  under  the  statute  of 
Moses — "Thou  shalt  not  suffer  a  witch  to  live."  At  the 
time  of  Kidd's  arrest  he  was  lodging  at  the  principal  hotel  in 


THE    KIDD    LETTER.  351 

Boston,  the  same  where  Bellomont  had  partaken  of  the 
hospitalities  of  the  authorities  and  citizens  on  his  arrival. 
Mrs.  Kidd  was  with  him.  Whether  she  came  direct  from 
New  York,  or  had  visited  him  during  his  stay  at  Gardiner's 
island,  does  not  appear.  Doubtless  she  had  come  to  remain 
for  a  long  time,  as  she  brought  her  plate  and  other  things  of 
highest  value.  She  suffered  the  indignity,  at  the  hands  of  the 
officers,  in  having  her  trunks  broken  open  and  her  valuables 
seized.  Some  time  after  her  husband's  imprisonment  she 
addressed  Governor  Bellomont  as  follows  : 
"  To  His  Excellency,  the  Governor  of  New  England  : 

My  Lord,  I  desire  your  favor,  that  I  may  be  admitted  to< 
go  into  the  prison  where  Capt.  Kidd  is  confined,  for  he  is  my 
lawful  husband ;  therefore  I  desire  your  lordship's  permis- 
sion. 

BOSTON,  July,  1699.  Jane  S.  Kidd." 

Concerning  the  indignities  offered  her  in  the  seizure  of  her 
trunks,  she  communicates  with  the  governor  in  the  following 
terms  : 

"  To  His  Excellency,  the  Governor  of  New  England  : 

My  Lord,  when  I  came  from  New  York,  I  brought  to 
Boston  all  my  silver  plates,  knives  and  forks,  spoons  and 
bowls,  which  have  all  been  taken  from  me,  and  which  were 
never  my  husbands.  The}^  were  given  to  me  on  my  wedding 
day  as  my  dowry,  I  desire  your  lordship's  favor  that  they 
may  be  returned  to  me. 

BOSTON,  July  25th,  1699.  Jane  S.  Kidd." 

It  is  probable,  though  no  mention  seems  to  be  made  in  the 
council  records  of  the  fact,  that  her  private  propert}^  was 
returned  to  her.  Doubtless  she  remained  with  her  husband 
during  his  long  imprisonment,  awaiting  the  arrival  of  an 
armed  vessel  to  take  him  to  England  for  trial,  when  it  is 
recorded  that  Mrs.  Kidd  and  her  daughter  returned  to  New 
York  and  lived  in  the  strictest  seclusion. 


352  THE    KIDD    LETTER. 

After  the  departure  of  Kidd  for  England  in  January,  1701, 
Bellomont  returned  to  New  York,  where  he  had  a  renewed 
attack  of  his  old  malady,  the  gout,  of  which  he  died  on  the 
5th  of  March.  Thus  ended  his  unhappy  labors  at  the  age  of 
sixty -five.  Governors  of  States,  and  Collectors  of  the  ports 
of  Boston  and  New  York,  think  their  duties  are  very  arduous 
in  keeping  their  party  in  good  health  and  spirits,  drawing 
and  receipting  for  their  salary,  or  in  making  their  moieties 
out  of  the  plundered  importing  merchant,  but  the  governor- 
ship of  a  province  200  years  ago  was  far  from  being  a  bed 
of  roses. 

Kidd  arrived  in  England  the  same  month  that  Bellomont 
-died.  Before  Kidd's  departure  from  Boston.  Livingston 
-came  on  and  had  some  pretty  earnest  interviews  with  Bel- 
lomont, touching  the  ultimatum  of  their  original  enter- 
prise. He  demanded  of  the  governor  the  bond  which  he, 
Livingston,  had  executed  to  Bellomont  personally  in  behalf 
•of  Kidd,  which  was  probably  surrendered,  as  the  reputation 
of  both  being  involved  in  the  public  scandal  an  indemnity 
bond  between  partners  in  privateering  was  of  small  considera- 
tion, with  prosecutions  and  impeachments  in  prospect.  Kidd 
was  indicted  both  for  piracj'  and  the  murder  of  his  gunner, 
William  Moore.  He  was  convicted  of  both  and  executed  in 
May,  1701.  His  sentence  was  unjust  in  the  matter  of  Moore, 
for  his  death  was  only  the  result  of  a  blow  given  in  sudden 
quarrel ;  and  in  the  other  case,  he  was  deprived  of  all  his 
papers,  which  were  in  the  hands  of  Bellomont,  and  his  trial 
was  forced  on  in  such  manner  as  to  indicate  that  guilty  or 
not  guilty  of  piracy,  a  victim  must  be  found  to  quiet  the 
public  mind  and  save  the  fame  of,  the  king,  the  lords  and 
<earls,  who  were  subscribers  to  the  privateering  enterprise,  if 
not  partners  in  all  that  resulted  therefrom.  There  was  a 
•Col.  Hewson,  who  testified  in  Kidd's  behalf,  giving  him  a 
good  reputation — recounting  and  declaring  to  the  court 
that  he  had  served  under  his  command,  and  had  been  with 


THE    KIDD    LETTER.  353 

him  in  two  engagements  against  the  French  under  du 
Cass.  This  witness  would  seem  to  be  and  no  doubt  was  the 
identical  Capt.  Houson  mentioned  in  the  Palmer  Kidd 
letter.  There  are  some  old  legends  still  existing  in  Warren, 
Mass., — the  ancient  Quabog.  One  to  the  effect  that  a  negro, 
one  of  Kidd's  company,  named  James  Marks,  died  there 
about  the  year  1802,  at  the  advanced  age  of  115  3rears,  who 
was  twelve  }Tears  old  when  Kidd  was  arrested  in  Boston,  and 
that,  owing  to  his  tender  years,  he  was  spared  by  the  officers 
of  justice — another,  that  some  thirty  years  ago  there  lived  an 
old  man,  who  recollected  hearing  his  father  say  that  a  man 
once  stopped  at  his  house,  a  tavern  that  stood  in  the  Western 
part  of  Warren,  several  days,  and  made  search  in  that 
vicinity  for  a  letter,  which,  he  said,  he  once  attempted  to 
carry  in  a  bottle  from  Boston  to  New  York,  and  which  he 
concealed  among  some  rocks,  somewhere  in  the  region  of  an 
Indian  town  called  Quabog.  But  legend  or  no  legend  con- 
firmatory of  the  authenticity  of  the  Kidd  letter  in  surround- 
ing places,  the  facts  of  history  recently  uncovered  and 
brought  to  light — corresponding  in  time,  circumstances,  and 
names — not  found  in  any  histo^  in  1849,  and  since  that 
time  discovered — all  point  with  an  unerring  index  finger  to 
this  letter  as  being  written  by  Kidd,  after  he  had  long  been 
confined  in  Boston,  in  the  last  days  of  1700,  when  he  was 
daily  expecting  to  be  transported.  If  not  Kidd's  letter — then 
the  perpetrator  of  the  fraud  knew  the  secrets  of  unsearched 
records — was  inspired — a  writing  medium — or  he  had  a  devM. 


23 


ADDENDA. 


The  name  of  D.  P.  Foster,  Esq.,  should  have  appeared  in 
the  note  on  page  195,  he  having  contributed  to  the  interest 
of  the  occasion  therein  referred  to,  by  presenting  the  city  of 
Cleveland  with  a  new  and  elegant  national  flag  in  appropriate 
and  felicitous  terms,  which  was  gracefully  accepted  by  the 
mayor,  as  appears  of  municipal  record. 


INDEX. 


Ackley,  Surgeon 5 

Adams,  John,  death  of 55 

Adams,  Charles  Francis,  min- 
ister to  England 100 

Adams,  John  Quincy 56,  233 

Adams  Jarvis  M 2 

Adams,  Joseph 2 

Adams,  Mrs.  John 62 

Adams,  Samuel  E 2 

Adelbert  College 10 

After  Twenty-Five  Years...  1—15 

Agassiz,  Prof. 72,  228 

Angier      6 

Agrippina  and  Lucretia — A 

parallel 254-260 

Aiken,  Reverend 5 

Alaman,  historian  of  Mexico  301 

Alcott,  Leverett 4 

Allen,  Elisha  H.     Hawaiian 

minister 153 

Allen,  John  W 187 

Allen,  Gov.  William 7 

American  Lakes 78 

Ancient  Egyptian  Beer  Gar- 
dens   167 

Ancient     Highway,    Boston 

to  New  York— 325 

Andrew,  Gov.  John  A.  179, 

235,  241,  249 
Andrews,  Sherlock  J.  2,  187, 

226,  238 

Andrews,  W.  W 3 

Anecdotes  of  Choate 312 

Antoinette,  Marie 76 

Appleton,    Mrs.,     Webster's 

daughter 308 

Arago 228 

Aranda 77,  300 


Armand,  Count 77 

Armstrong,  W.  W 240 

Ashmun,  Geo 309 

Atlantic  Cable 14 

Atlantis,  island  of  Plato,  217,  287 

Atwater,  George  M 174 

Autocrat   of   the    Breakfast 

Table  86 

Austin,  Atty.  Genl.  of  Mass.  250 
Axtell,  lawyer 2 


Babcock,  Mr.,  old  firm 4 

Backus,  Franklin  T 2,  238 

Bailey,  Ed.  National  Era 156* 

Baldwin,    C.     C.,     historical 

researches 41 

Baldwin,  E.  1 4 

Baldwin,  Norman  C 8 

Bankers  and  Brokers 6 

Bancroft,   Geo. — minister  to 

England 100 

Banks,  N.  P.  94, 152, 178,  235,  241 
Banquet,  The  Cleveland  Bar  237 

Banquet,  The  Riddle 91 

Barber,  Judge  G.  M 3 

Barber,  Josiah 201 

Barlow,  Merrill.. 3 

Barnett,  General  4 

Barnett,  Melanchton 4 

Barnes,  Isaac  0.,  U.  S.  Mar- 
shall—anecdote   300 

Barrett,   Mrs. — dramatic   ar- 
tist   235 

Bartram,  Wheeler 145 

Bauder,  Levi  F 37 

Beavis,  B.  R 3 

Beecher,  Dr.  Edward 156 

Beck,  Conrad 225 


356 


INDEX. 


Bench  and  Bar..... 2 

Bellomont,  Governor 335 

Bellomont,  Lady 342 

Benedict,  Geo.  A 2 

Bennett,     James     Gordon — 

Livingstone's  letter  to 207 

Benton,  senator 316 

Berkley,   Bishop 297 

Beranger,  Songs  of. 75 

Berrien,  senator 156,  178,  316 

Bingham,  William 4 

Bird,  Frank  W 179,  241,  249 

Birney,  Mr 156 

Bittenger,  Rev..    5 

Bishop,  Judge  J.  P 1 

Black  Hawk 219 

Blaine,  Speaker 103,  119 

Bliss,  George 238 

Boardman,  W.  J 3 

Boardman,  William  W 227 

Bolton,  C.  E 48 

Bolton,  Sarah  K. — author....     46 

Bolton,  Judge  Thomas 238 

Bone,  J.  H.  A 38 

Boutwell,  Geo.  S 94,  152, 

178,  235,  241 

Bowles,  Dr.  James  A 5 

Bradburn,  George— editor.  2,  240 

Brooks,  Prof 72 

Brinsmade,  A.  T 3 

Brough,  Gov.  John 250 

Brown,  Rev 5 

Brown,  General  Jacob 55,  192 

Brown,  General  Joseph  W...  192 
Brown,  Professor,  Dartmouth  316 
Browne,  Charles  F.— "Arte- 

mus  Ward" 181 

Brownell,  A.  C 1 

Brush,  Charles  F 15 

Burchard,  Rev 21 

Buckingham,  Gov 250 

Burgess,  L.  F.  &  S 4 

Burgess,  Tristam 20 

Burlingame,    Anson — minis- 
ter to  China,  etc. ..98,  152, 

178,  235,  241 

Burns,  Robert 299 

Burroughs,  Stephen 325 

Butler,  B.  F 150,  236 

Butler,  Gov.  Ezra 55 


Byerly,  F.  X  .....................       1 

Byron,  Lord—  The  Sword  of..  113 


Cable,  Atlantic  ..................  14 

Cadwell,  Judge  Darius  .......  3,  51 

Cadwell,  Miss  —  author  ........  51 

Cagger,  Peter  ....................  240 

Calhoun,  John  C  .....  156,  316,  321 

Cameron,  Simon  ................  93 

Carey,  John-  E  ..................  2 

Carpenter,  Matthew  Hale  .....  56 

Canter,  Judge  D.  K  ........  91,  238 

Case,  Leonard  ................  4,  45 

Case,  Leonard,  Jr  ............  2,  34 

Case,  William....  ................  4 

Case     School     of     Applied 

Science  ..........................  72 

Cass,  General  .................  28,  152 

Cassells,  Prof  J.  Lang  .........  68 

Castle,  M.  S  ......................  2 

Castelar,  Emelio  ................  73 

Celebrated      Composers     of 

Opera  ...........................  278 

Celestial  Harmony  ..............  266 

Cervantes  ........................  74 

Cesnola  ...........................  208 

Chase,  Salmon  P  ......  93,  178,  316 

Chicago,  burning  of  .....  108,  114 

China,  musical  legends  of..  ...  262 

Chisholm,  Henry  ............  13,  195 

Choate,  Rufus...57,  152,  156, 

178,  200,  227,  235/237,  248 

252,  254,  311 

Clark,  Edmund  ...............  4,  146 

Clark,  James  S  ..................  145 

Clay,  Cassius  M  ................  93 

Clay,  Henry  ...........  156,  178,  316 

Claxton.  Rev  .....................  5 

Cleveland  Bar  Banquet  ........  237 

Cleveland,  James  D  ............  1 

Cleveland  Law  College  ........  72 

Cleveland  Sinking  Fund  ......  127 

Coach  of  Lafayette  ............  57 

Coffinberry,  Judge  James  M.  3 
Colby,  Gov;,  of  New  Hamp- 

shire ............................  174 

Collier,  Rev.  Robert  ...........  169 

Collins,    E.    K.  —  European 

steamers  .........................  80 


INDEX. 


357 


Collins,  Wm 3,  238 

Colwell,  Albert  G.— consul...  239 

Comstock,  Prof 72 

"Conscience  and  Cotton,"....   241 

Coon,  John 2 

Cornell,  Ezra 206,  209 

Corning,  Erastus 13,   240 

Cortland,  Philip  Van 190 

Corwin,  Thomas 93,  178,  316 

Cowles,  Edwin 50,  240 

Cox,  Samuel  S 73 

Coxe,  Bishop 26 

Crittenden,  John  J.,  senator  178 

Crispin,  the  grenadier 27 

Cross,  D.  W 1,     36 

Crowell,  John 3 

Crowningshield,  Speaker  152,  305 
Crowningshield,  Benj.  W.  ...  311 
Crusades    and    the    Trouba- 
dours   272 

Curtiss,  Governor 358 

Curtiss,  Benj.  R 251 

Curtiss,  James  M 49,  199,  201 

Gushing,  Dr.  Erastus 5 

Gushing,  Caleb — minister  to 

China 98 

Cuyahoga  in  Congress 187 


Dagget,  David 54,  227 

Damascus,  A  Legend  of......  115 

Dana,  Richard  H 149 

Dana,  Richard  H.,  Jr 151, 

153,  235,  237,  322 

Dana,  Richard  H.,  3d 149 

Davis,  Prof.  William  M...39,  213 

Davison,  Robert  A 2 

Day,  E.  L 1 

Deacon  Joselyn's  "Old   Ja- 
maica"   64 

Delamater,  Dr.  Jacob 5 

Dewitt,  Simon 190 

Dennis,  R.  B  2 

Dibble,  Lewis 3 

Dickinson,  Daniel  S 316 

Dickman,  Franklin  J 3,  322 

Dillingham,  Governor  Paul..  55 
Dix,  John  A.,  minister.. .100, 

-240,  316 

Dodge,  Samuel 145 


Dodge,  George  C 1 

Dodge,  Henry  H 1 

Donnelly,  Ignatius,  author...  287 

Dodd,  E.  L 4 

Douglas,  S.  A. ..88,  156,  200,  232 
Duke  of  Edinburgh,  patron 

of  musical  art ..    ..  282 


Edgertonfc  Gov.  Sidney 53 

Edwards,  William 4,  201 

Eells,  Dan  P 6,  108 

Eells,  Rev. 5 

Eighteen  Hundred   Seventy- 
One.... .*..  108 

Electric  Light 15 

Election  in  Spain,  1872 74 

Ellsler,  John  A 2 

Elsworth,  Chief  Justice 61 

Elwell,  J.  J.,  author 3 

Embury,  Emma  C 21 

English  Statesmen,  prophet- 
ic views  of  America...  297,  299 

Erwin,  John 49,  224 

Estep,  E.  J  2 

Everett,  Alexander  H.,  min- 
ister to  China 98 

Everett,  Dr.  Azariah,  banker       6 

Everett,  Edward 98,  233 

Everett,  S.  T.,  financier.. .49,  201 

Everett,  Weddell  &  Co 6 

Ewing,  Thomas 56,  178,  316 

F 

Fairbanks,  Mrs.  A.  W 32 

Famous    Composers   of   the 

Mass 277 

Farley,  Patrick,  mail  service.       1 
Field,  Cyrus  W...  14,  106,209;  233 

Fish,  C.'L 3 

Fish,  Hamilton 190 

Fitch,  Jabez  W 1,       2 

Fitch,  James 2 

Fletcher,    Governor,  his   ad- 
ministration   337 

Fogg,  Wm.  Perry,  author 32 

Foot,  John  A...  .'. 2 

Foote,  Judge  Horace 2,       3 

Ford,  Thomas 100,  238 

Foster,  Abbey  Kelley 156 


BANCROFT 
LIBRARY 


358 


INDEX. 


Foster,  D.  P 354 

Foster,  Geo.  H 201 

Foster,  Governor  Charles 241 

Freese,  Andrew 1 

French,  Clinton 57 

Fuller.  William...  1 


Gadsden,    revolutionary    pa- 

triot ......................  ".  .......   135 

Gape,  D.  W  ......................       3 

Gage,  Governor  .................     62 

Gallagher,  M.,  city  marshall..       1 
Gallatin,  Albert  .................  324 

Gann,    Miss,    of  the    Boston 

Museum  ........................  235 

Gardiner's    Island,    treasure 

deposited  by  Kidd  ...........  343 

Gardiner,  John,  confided  in 

by  Kidd  ........................  343 

Garfield,  James  A  .........  171,  230 

Garretson,     Hiram,      U.     S. 

Commissioner  to  Vienna...     45 
Garrison,  William  Lloyd  ...... 

156,  i235,  248 
Garlick,  Dr.  Theodatus,  arti- 

ficial fish  culture  ..........  5,     70 

Gentoo  Law  ......................  224 

German  Masters  of  Musical 

Composition  ..  ...............    278 

Giddings,  Joshua  R  ............  156 

"  Glittering       Generalities," 

origin  of  expression  ..........  321 

Gordon,  W.  J  ....................     50 

Goodrich,  Rev.  Dr  ............  221) 

Gould,  Dr.,  astronomer  ........  148 

Granger,  Francis  ...............  177 

Grannis,  John  C  .................       2 

Gray,    J.    W.,    editor    Plain 

Dealer  .................  1,  2,  13,  240 

Greeley,  Horace  ................  240 

Green,  F.  W  ....................       3 

Greene,    Judge,     author     of 

"Old  Grimes."  ................     20 

Griswold,  Hiram  ................       3 

Griswold,  S.  0  ....................       2 

Guido  of  Arezo  ..................  271 


Hale,  E.  B.,  banker  ............       6 


Hale,   John  P.,    minister  to 

Spain  100,  156 

Halleck,  Fitz  Green Ill 

Halliwell,  Mrs.  A.  B 44 

Hamilton,  Mrs.  Alexander... 

191,  194 

Hamilton,  Andrew 143 

Hamilton,  Judge  K  T 3 

Hamilton,  Gail 163 

Hamilton,  Philip 190 

Hancock,  Mrs.  John 62 

Handy,  T.  P... 6 

Harrington,  Benjamin 8 

Harris,  J.  A.,  editor 2,  240 

Hartley,  David 131 

Hastings,  Warren 224 

Hatton,  Joseph 169 

Ha}*,  John 36 

Hayes,  Governor  201 

Hayne.  Robert  Y 305 

Hayward,  Col.  W.  H 9 

Heislev,  William  162 

Heisley,  John  W 3 

Herrick,  G.  E 3 

Hessenmueller,     Judge    Ed- 
ward   2 

Hill,  Rev.  Moses 5 

Billiard,  Richard 3,  146 

Historical  Society 71 

Holland,  J.  G 183,  175 

Holmes,  Oliver  Wendell 86 

Hopkinson,    "  Battle   of  the 

Kegs" ..  64 

Hopkinson,     Judge,     "  Hail 

Columbia" 54 

Howe,  George  W 49 

Howe,  Julia  Ward 65 

Howe,  Dr.  Samuel  G Ill 

Hoyt,  George 185 

Hoyt,  James  M 2,  143 

Huger,  Col 191 

Humboldt,  Yon..  228 

Humor  and  its  Uses 228 

Hunt,  R.  G 3 

Hurd,  Mr.,  old  firm 4 

Husband,  Attorney 2 

Hughes,  Arthur 49 

Hughes,  James  M 12 

Hurlbut,  H.  B.,  banker 6 

Hyde,  George  A. 69 


INDEX. 


359 


Ingersoll,  J.  Edwards 3 

Ingham,  Mrs.  W.  A 47 

Ingham,  Mrs.  Sadie  W 47 

In  Memoriain — Morse  104 

Irving,  Washington...   •. 294 

Italian  Composers 277 

Iwakura — Japanese  Embassy  101 
J 

Jackson,  Morris 1 

Janes,  Emma 48 

Janes,  Henry  F 55 

Jefferson  and  Lafayette, 

meeting  of 55 

Johannes,  "Count," 144 

Johnson,  Levi 4,  145 

Johnson,  Oliver 156 

Jones,  Judge  James  M 3 

Jones,  Thomas 4 

Jones,  Sir  William 399 

Jordan,  Ambrose  L 191 

Judah,  Mrs.,  actress 235 

Joselyn,  Captain  of  the 

"Minute  Men." 62 

It 

Keith,  M.  R 2 

Keffer,  John  C.,  editor 240 

Kennedy,  J.  H 41 

Kelley,  Judge 6 

Kelley,  Moses '. 238 

Kemiish,  W.  S 3 

Keyes,  Edward  -L...178,  179,  241 

Kidd  Letter,  The 324,  353 

Kidd,  Robert.... 340 

Kidney,  George  H 171 

Kimball,  Moses  234 

Kimberly,  Dennis .• 227 

Kirby.  Judge 194 

Kirtland,  Prof.  Jared  P.  ...5,  228 

Kirtland  Society 66 

Kirtland,  town  and  temple...   172 


Lafayette,  meeting  with  Jef- 
ferson  55,  190 

Lafayette,  George  Washing- 
ton   191 

Lakes,  The  American 78 


Lamartine  .......................     153 

La  Rue,  Sarjjeant  ...............     13 

Land      Grabbing,      Colonial 

times  ............................  336 

Lawrence,  Abbott  ...............  152 

Laws  of  Oleron  and  Wisby.  ..     78 
Layard  ...........................   208 

LeVake,  Colonel,  compatriot 

of  Lafayette  ...................     56 

LeVake,  W.  C  .....................     56 

LeVake,  Geo.  J  ..................     56 

Lewis,  Col.  G.  F  ...............  6,  171 

Lewis,  General  Morgan  ........  190 

Lewis,  Mrs.  General  ...........  191 

"  Lightfoot"  and  "Thunder- 

bolt," ....................  ......  327 

Lincoln,  President  .........  93,  200 

Livingston,  Henry  A  ..........   190 

Livingston,  Robert,  relations 

with  Capt.  Kidd  ..............  340 

Livingstone,  Dr  ..................  205 

Lord,  OtisP  ................  ......  178 

Lowell,  James  Russell  .....  34,     39 

Lucretia,  Agrippina   and  —  a 

parallel  ........................  254 

Lynde,  G.  W  .....................       2 

Lyon,  R.  T  .......................       4 

Lyon,  S.  S  ........................       4 


Madison,  Mrs  .....................   194 

Maintenon,  Madame  ............  219 

Mangum,  Senator  .........  178,  316 

Marble,  Manton  .................  240 

Marchand,  Joseph  ..............       4 

Marseillaise,  The  ................     75 

Marsh,  Geo.  P.,  minister  ......   100 

Marshall,  Chief  Justice  ........  161 

Marshall,  Geo.  F  ................     49 

Mason,  James...  ...............  2,  227 

Mather,  Samuel  H  ..............       7 

Mathews,  Stanley  ...............  241 

Me  Cook,  Geo.  W.,  Attorney 
General  .......................  238 

McFarland,  W.  C  ...............       3 

McKinney,  Judge  Henry  .....       3 

Mclntosh,  Alexander  .........       3 

Mclntosh,  Sir  James  ...........  321 

McLean,  Judge  ..................     81 

McLeod,  General  Donald  .....     27 


360 


INDEX. 


McMath,  Judge  J.  H 3 

McNeil,  General .: 155 

Mecklenburg   Declaration  of 

Independence 327 

Means,  Dr 148 

Medill,  Governor  William...  1 
Memories  and  Coincidences  16 
Mentor  and  Mecca  of  the 

Mormons 170 

Merriam,  Geo.  and  Charles, 

publishers 320 

Migdol  Daily  Tribune 268 

Miller,  Col.  J.  P.,  sword  of 

Byron.. 56,  110 

Miller,    Luke   Miltiades,   the 

Greek 113 

Miriam,  first prima  donna...  267 

Minuet,  Peter 337 

Montgomery,  Mrs.  General  ..  191 
Morse,  Rev.  Jedidiah,  geog- 
rapher      58 

Morse,  S.  F.  B 58,  105,  107 

Monroe,  Mrs  194 

Morgan,  Col.  Geo.  W 12 

Morton,  Governor 250 

Morton,  U.  S.  Attorney  23S 

Mosby,  General 119 

Mueller,  Jacob 2 

Murchison,  Sir  Roderick 205 

Miiller  Max 28 

Music  and  its  lnfluences..261-285 
Mygatt  &  Brown,  bankers....  6 

IV 

National    Reform   and    Pri- 
mary Meetings 148-151 

National  Songs 284 

Newell,  Grandison,  war  with 

the  Mormons 172 

Newberry,  Professor..... (»7 

Newton,  John  T 3 

Nero's  Fiddling 281 

New  York  in  1696,  privateer- 
ing and  piracy 336 

Neville,  Vice  Admiral  of  Eng.  339 

Noble,  Charles  W 2 

Noble,  R.  D 3 

Noted  Musical  Artists 280 

o 

Obliterating  the  Land  Marks  145 


Oersted 72 

Ohio  City  Annexed 2 

"Old  Grimes," 18 

Old  Merchants. .. 4 

Opera,  Great  Composers »278 

Otis,  W.  S.  C 2 

Otis  Mrs.  James 62 

Our  Guests  of  the  Sangerfest  158 
Our  Travelers  and   Writers, 

29—51 


Paige,  Mr 309 

Paine,  Judge  R.  F '     '2. 

Paine,  Mrs.  Robert  Treat 62 

Paine,  Thomas 144 

Palmer,  Charles  W 2 

Palmer,  Mass.,  ancient  high- 
way in ...  327 

Pannel,  James    195- 

Parks,  Robert 1 

Parsons,  R.  C...1,  50,  91,  188,  228 

Patriotic  Literature 64 

Payne,  Henry  B 51,  188,  241 

Payne,  Miss  Flora 31 

Payne,  Nathan  P 50,  195,  196 

Peabody,  Dr 148 

Pekin,  Sanitar}*  Regulations 

of. 243 

Pendleton,  Senator  241 

Perkins,  Jacob 11 

Perkins,  Jacob  B 11 

Perkins,  Joseph 11 

Pcrrv,   Commodore  155- 

Perry,  John  S.,  Mexican  War     12 

Perry,  Nathan 4,  145 

Perry,  Oliver... 4 

Petroleum 14 

Philippe,  Louis 153,  233 

Phillips,  Adelaide 233 

Phillips,  Wendell 98,  110, 

156,  235,  250 

Pratt,  Orson,  Mormon 172 

Prentiss,  Samuel,  Senator....  56 

Prentiss,  Judge  S.  B 2,  3,  56 

Prentiss,  Loren 2 

Prescott,  historian 295 

Price,  David 195 

Priestl}',  philosopher 135 

Proctor,  Richard  A 214,  286- 


INDEX. 


361 


Prophecies  of  a  Continent....   293 
Pulci,  Visions  of.  ................  295 


Questions  Answered 


Randolph,  John  ..............  20, 

Ranney,  Rufus  P...  3,  51,  82, 
Rappe,  Bishop  .................. 

Rawlinson  ........................ 

Raymond,  Henry  J  ........... 

Reade,  Charles,  author  ........ 

Recollections  of  the   Hawai- 

ian Chancellor  ............... 

Recollections     of     Adelaide 

Phillips  ........................ 

Recollections  of  Webster  and 

Choate  .....................  302 

Reunion  of  the  Originals  ..... 

Revere,  Paul  .................... 

Rex,  George  ................... 

Rhodes,  Charles  L  .............. 

Rhodes,  Daniel  P  ............... 

Rhodes,  J.  H  ..................... 

Rhode  Island  Boundary  Case 
Rice,  Harvey,  author.!.  ...35, 

Rice,  Henry  M.,  senator  ..... 

Richards,  Joseph  ............... 

Richmond,  Dean  ............... 

Rickoff,  Rebecca  D  ............. 

Riddle,  A.  G  ......  2,  156,  187, 

Ritter,   Louis.  .........  .  .......... 

Robbins,  Jason  .................. 

Robison,  Dr.  J.  P  .........  ...... 

Robison,  William  ............... 

Robinson,    Wm.    S  ,    "  War- 

rington  ...............  179,  536, 

Roland,  Madame  ............... 

Rollin,  Ledru  ..............  153 

Ross,  J.  P  .......................... 

Root,  Morgan  and  .............. 

Root  and  Whitelaw  ............ 

Rouse,  Mother  .................. 

Russell,  L.  A  ..................... 


230 


321 

241 

5 

209 
240 
144 

152 

233 

323 
155 

248 

238 
2 
9 
3 

312 

201 

56 

4 

240 
39 

238 

2 

17 

171 
3 

241 

76 

233 

6 

4 

4 

60 

3 


Sanford,  Gen.  A.  S 9 

Sargent,  J.  H 32 

Science.  Literature  and  Law 

66—72 


Schliemann 209 

Scott,  Winfield .155,  190 

Scott,  Dred,  decision 163. 

Scranton,  Joel 7 

Sears,  Theodore  C*. 2 

Selyns,  Domine,  sin  in  New 

York,  336 

Seward,  Wm.  H 165,  177,  190 

Sepoy  Rebellion 283 

Seymour,  Horatio 240 

Shaw,  Chief  Justice. ..82,  94,  321 

Shaw,  Dr.  Gardiner 328 

Shaw,  Samuel 328 

Shay's  Rebellion., 327 

Shelley,  John 50 

Sherman,  John 241 

Sherman,  Roger  M 227 

Sigourney,  Lydia  H 46 

Silliman, 'Professor 228- 

Sims,  Elias 11 

Slade,  A.  T 238 

Slade,  William 3,  92,  238 

Smith,  George 209 

Smith,  Garrett 169 

Smith,  J.  Hyatt 5 

Smiths,  Joseph  and  Hirum, 

prophets 172 

Smith,  J.  B..... 4 

Smith,  William  T 4 

Smith,  Wm.  H,   manager 234 

South  Side  Park,  dedicatory  215 

Spangler,  M.  M 1 

Spalding.  R.  P 2,  188 

Spencer,  T.  P 8 

Sprague,  Judge 312. 

Stager,  Gen.  Anson 10 

Stanhope,  Lady  Hester 28- 

Stanley,  Cashier.. 6 

Stanley,  H.  M.,  explorer  205,  207 
Starkweather,  Samuel  1,  196,  23£ 

Steam  Fire  Engines 14 

Sterling,  Dr.  E 6,  121 

Stevens,  H.  S 31 

Stetson,  Charles 2' 

Stockwell,  Prof.  John  N 

72,  211,  285 

Stone,  Amasa 10 

Stone,  Silas  S 8 

Street  Railroads 14 

Studley,  F.  G 23- 


362 


INDEX. 


Snmner,  Charles 31,  162, 

177,  178,  241 

Swift,  Zephania 54,  227 

Swisshelm,  Jane  G 120 


Taft,  Judge 241 

Taney,  Chief  Justice 161 

Taylor,  General 152 

Telephone 14 

Thayer,   Colonel 192 

Thayer,  Dr.  Proctor  L fi 

Thayer,  Major  L.  C 2,     94 

The  Cause 107 

The   Cow   in    Court,    pundit 

correspondence 221 

The  Celestial  Embassador...     98 

The  Dead  Children 203 

The  Japanese  Embassy 101 

The  Millennium  of  Iceland...  188 
The  National  Land  System..  131 
The  Press  and  the  Cardiff 

Giants 141 

The  Past  and  the  Future 177 

The  Riddle  Banquet 91 

The  Staff  of  Steel 195 

The  Sword  of  Spain 128 

The  Two  Doctors 83 

The  Year  of  Centennials 1H5 

Thiers,  President 74 

Thiers,  Madame 76 

Thome,  Rev 5 

Thomson,  Sir  William 14 

Thurman,  Senator 241 

Ttmreby,  Miss  Emma  284 

Tilden,"Judge  Daniel  R,7,  51,  224 

Tod,  Governor 250 

Tod,  John 201 

Townsend,  Amos 189 

Turney,  Joseph 201 

Tuttle,  Prof. 72 

Triumph  of  the  Red  Sea 266 

Truth  at  last,  and  by  a  Wom- 
an    161 

Tj-ler,  Moses  Coit 151 

Tyndall 212 


Van  Dam,  Rip 343 

Tan  Twiller,  Wouter 343 


Varick,  Colonel.,  ...............  192 

Vaughn,  John  C  .................       2 

Viaduct  Reflections  ............  208 

Vilain  XIV,  Madame  la  Vi- 
comtesse  .......................     50 

Vincent,  John  A  .................       4 


Wade,  Edward  .............  187,  227 

Wade,  James,  Jr  ...............       2 

Wade,  J.  H  ......  106,  199,  201, 

209,  233 
Wagner,  Richard  ...............  250 

Waite,  Chief  Justice  ......  162,  238 

Ward,  Artemus  ..................  181 

"War  of  the  Guages,"  .........     95 

War,  Avarice,  and  Peculation  124 
Walton,  E.  P.,  editor  ...........  303 

Walton,  J.  W  ....................     49 

Warner,  W.  J  ...............  14,     57 

Warren,  of  Bunker  Hill  .......  248 

Warren,  commedian  ...........       2 

Waterworks  .....................       2 

Watmough,  P.  G  ...............     37 

Webster,  Daniel.  88,  89,  152, 

156,178,  199,227,  248,251,  303 
Webster,  Maj.  Edward  .........  308 

Webster,  Fletcher  ...............  313 

Webster's  Spelling-book  ......     52 

Weed,  Thurlow......l77,  190,  240 

Weideman,  J.  C  .................  201 

Weidenkopf,  Jacob  ............     12 

Weddell.  P.  M  .......  ............  145 

Weddeli's  "Tavern,"  ...........     55 

Whately,  Arch  Bishop  .........  294 

Wheeler,  Dr  ......................       6 

White,  Bushnell  ...............  2,  224 

White,  Rev  .......................       5 

White.  Rev.  J.  C  ...............  201 

Whittlesey,  Charles  .........  45,  217 

Whittier,  J.  G  ...............  96,  124 

Wick,  H.  B.  .....................       6 

Wick,  Dr.  Lemuel  ..............       6 

Wightman,  D"  L  .................       1 

Willey,  George  .................  2,     50 

Williams,  Elisha  .................  191 

Williamson,  Samuel  ............       1 

Williamson,  Judge  S.  E  .......       3 

Willson,  Judge  H.  V.  2,  3,  81,  238 
Wilson,  Henry...  94,  152,  178,  241 


INDEX. 


363 


IVinslow,  Charles 8 

Winslow,  A.  P 6 

Winthrop,  Gov.  John  248 

Witt,  Stillman 10 

Wood,  Fernando, 240 

Wood,  Gov.  Reuben 1,  2 

Woodbury,  Judge 81,  152,  312 

Woolsoti,  Constance  Fenni- 

more 137 

Worth,  Major 192 

Wright,  Mrs.  Frances,  of 

England 191 


Wright,  Silas  ....................  156 

Wyman,  Florence  ..............     51 

Wyman,  Geo.  H  .................       2 


Younglove,  M.  C  ................     50 

Young's,  the  Delmonico's  of 
Boston  .........................    178 


Zenger,    Peter  J.,    prosecu- 
tion of. v 143 


.;  . 


